Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion. Regulation 3 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 amended regulation 1 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (Wales) Regulations 2003 by amending the definition of 'money market fund'. That definition included references to EU directive 2009/65/EC, the directive on the...
Julie James: Can I just say thank you very much to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee for its help in this matter? It is important that local authorities have access to a range of investment options to maximise their income, including investing surplus funds on a short-term basis. We do expect all local authorities to balance risk and return of investment in line with the treasury...
Julie James: Thank you for the question. An increased supply of rented social housing is essential. We will meet our 20,000 affordable homes target, and the majority of these homes will be social housing for rent. I will go further and support councils to take advantage of the new conditions to build new council housing at scale and pace.
Julie James: I completely share the Member's outrage at such behaviour. I'm confident that no such thing is happening in Wales, but I will redouble our efforts to make sure it doesn't. We recently changed 'Planning Policy Wales' to re-emphasise the need to create places, communities, sustainable communities, for the citizens of Wales, and that of course includes a sustainable set of housing and the...
Julie James: Yes. My predecessor in the planning portfolio, Lesley Griffiths, reissued 'Planning Policy Wales' towards the end of last year, and that's a complete rewrite of the document—it's not just an updating. That document goes out of its way to emphasise the importance of community building, placemaking, in the planning system and in any local authority's LDP. Local authorities should have an LDP...
Julie James: We've gone out to consultation, as the Member rightly says. We've had a large number of responses back. We're looking carefully at those responses. It's a general consultation. Once we've been able to analyse the responses thoroughly, then I'll be able to come back to the Member and Members in general to say how we're going to take this forward, but I've met the fire chiefs and their chairs...
Julie James: Everybody finds change difficult. We had a very good discussion, as I said, pre the consultation closure. I encouraged them all to put forward all of the points—some of which you're now making on their behalf. When we've analysed all the responses, I promised them another meeting before we go public with that and a chance to speak to me directly, all of the fire chiefs and their chairs, so...
Julie James: [Inaudible.]—firefighting service. There's a range of opinions that have been expressed back, and as soon as we've analysed all the opinions—I've had a further discussion, I promised the fire services, with them—and we're able to come to some conclusions, I'll be able to report back to the Member, who's done a fine job of reading some of the concerns out for the Senedd today.
Julie James: I think the Member raises a very important point, because the local authorities, who have, as we all know, suffered—this is their ninth year of austerity—have lost a number of skills from each individual local authority that enables them to withstand, for example, legal submissions by developers, particularly large developers across Wales, not so much with the small and medium-sized...
Julie James: I am.
Julie James: As I said, I do recognise the problem that the Member outlines, and we are working with authorities to put the skills back in where necessary, and actually to share scarce skills around local authorities in particular areas. You will know that we also encourage authorities to put strategic development plans in place, within which their LDP can sit, which gives them another level of defence...
Julie James: Yes, I share her ambition for a system that produces that. I don't think we need a full comprehensive review; we have a large number of reviews ongoing, actually. We have the affordable homes review—I met with the chair only yesterday morning; my time sense is not very good, it might have been this morning—certainly very recently. I had a very good conversation with her around what we're...
Julie James: I understand from my recent meeting with Caerphilly leader and chief executive that they expect a report of the designated independent person to come in some time during April. So, I can pass on the information that that's what they expect. However, the First Minister is entirely right: employment matters are entirely a matter for the council and we're not in a position to have any input into...
Julie James: The Workforce Partnership Council has addressed this issue in the round for local authorities and the First Minister gave an undertaking that, once the processes in Caerphilly have finished, we will undertake a review of disciplinary action for the top tiers of local authority officers. I don't think it's at all right to compare two local authorities in the way that you have, because a large...
Julie James: As the First Minister said in answer to the question—and I agree with him entirely—I agree that there should be a multiplier. It's usually 20 between the lowest paid and the highest paid in any organisation. The workforce partnership council, which the Deputy Minister is going to be chairing later on this year, in its new reconfigured form, will be taking account of the pay and conditions...
Julie James: We're very much in favour of looking to see whether we can make security of tenure much more of a reality here in Wales, and we will be working hard with the sector to see whether we can repeal or modify section 21, as it's called, of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 in order to give people better security of tenure.
Julie James: Yes. I don't disagree at all with the proposition that Jenny Rathbone puts forward, and I absolutely agree good-quality housing is a springboard from which children and families could create secure and successful futures. It's a human right to have a secure home that you can rely on and that you can build a future on, and I couldn't agree more. All of the evidence suggests that children who...
Julie James: Yes. I think the Member is absolutely right. I mean, there are a number of complexities here around why the sector is as it is, but there's no doubt at all that sudden eviction for no apparent reason is a real scourge. We know that it happens and we know that many landlords would never dream of doing such a thing, but we do know that it happens, so we need to get the regulation to be...
Julie James: Certainly. the Welsh Government is committed to protecting local government and the services they provide. Local government in all areas of Wales have received the best possible settlement, with the 1 per cent reduction announced at the 2018-19 final budget turning into a 0.2 per cent increase this year.
Julie James: Yes. I absolutely welcome the prioritisation that Torfaen and, indeed, many other authorities are giving to education and social services in what is indeed a very difficult settlement for most local authorities. We recognise the challenges for authorities and the difficult choices they're making, as I said earlier, on the savings and changing services, and the decisions they're having to make...
