Julie James: Local authorities will receive £4.2 billion of general funding to spend on services in 2019-20, and core funding will increase by 0.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared to 2018-19. In line with our programme for government commitment to provide funding for a settlement floor, the settlement includes £3.5 million fully funded by the Welsh Government to ensure that no authority has to...
Julie James: With pleasure. Through Digital Communities Wales and the many other actions in our digital inclusion framework and delivery plan, we are supporting more people to gain maximum benefit from the life-changing opportunities digital technologies can offer.
Julie James: I certainly do. Digital inclusion can have a significant impact on people's health outcomes by helping them take control of their health and care, or helping to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. It can give them a medium through which they can communicate with others in the most comfortable way and access online services and resources to support their mental health in what can be a...
Julie James: Yes. As I said, we've got a new £6 million, three-year digital inclusion and health programme, which will work to improve the digital capabilities of citizens and health and social care staff, allowing more people to become more active participants in their own health and well-being, which will start in July of this year. We've also put £250,000 into the translation of Learn My Way, which...
Julie James: Yes, thank you for the question. This Government is committed to ensuring everyone has a decent place to call home. We are investing in tackling homelessness, including through the development of Housing First in Wales, and are committed to increasing and protecting our social housing stock.
Julie James: Yes, it's an interesting consequence of the Act, which has been very successful in preventing homelessness, that we are seeing some of the rises that the Member outlines, and we are working hard with local authorities to ensure that people don't stay in expensive temporary accommodation for any length of time at all and to move them on into secure, long-term accommodation as fast as possible,...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen to acquaint the Assembly that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill, has given her consent to this Bill. Llywydd, I move the motion. I am pleased to open this debate on the Renting Homes (Fees, etc.) (Wales) Bill following the completion of Stage 3 last week. As Members...
Julie James: Formally.
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. In opening this debate, Mark Isherwood, as usual, took absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for the political choice of austerity perpetrated on Wales by the UK Tory Government. Every successive Tory speaker did exactly the same thing all the way through. I'm really sorry that you're so bored by the conversation on austerity that you cannot see the...
Julie James: A decent place to live should be a human right. Welsh Government legislation has helped prevent homelessness for 21,460 households across Wales since it was introduced, including 3,528 from north Wales.
Julie James: I attend regular meetings with the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd at which we discuss a wide range of aspects of local government finance, including procurement.
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Welsh Government is fully committed to making people safer in their homes. We have a strong record in doing just that. Since responsibility for fire was devolved in 2005, the number of fires in dwellings has fallen further and faster in Wales than anywhere else in the UK. That said, we cannot and we will not be complacent. Much evidence has emerged following the...
Julie James: I very much welcome David Melding's contribution. I completely agree with everything he's said. We will be looking to take forward changes to the building regulations—part A, I think it is, of the building regulations—as soon as possible. But, as he acknowledged, we do need to make sure that when we make those changes they are the robust changes that will deliver the system change that we...
Julie James: Thank you for those very important questions indeed. As I hope I made clear in the statement, we haven't decided what the level of risk that we're going to be looking at is. The group has made a number of recommendations that we want to explore. I think I made it clear that I didn't think that Dame Hackitt's recommendation was fit for Wales as it was too high. But, absolutely; a two-storey...
Julie James: Well, starting with the last one there, I very much welcome John Griffiths's comments and I agree with him entirely that it's very much in the same space as the committee report, which is really pleasing—that we are able to take it forward together. Going backwards, some of the things that he raises, rightly, are things that we will need to respond to in the round in the report overall. I...
Julie James: Yes, I think Joyce Watson makes a number of very important points there, and overlapped with a point I didn't respond to in John Griffiths's submission, actually, which I've just realised, which is the issue about the competence and the building inspectors. So, there is a whole section in the road map around approved inspectors and their competency, and how a joint competent authority might...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I very much welcome the opportunity to look at the importance of social housing and its benefits here in the Chamber today. It's not often I disagree with a Member who's bringing forward a short debate, but I found myself disagreeing quite vehemently with much of what Caroline Jones said. I'm sure she has the individual caseload that she mentions, and...
Julie James: In terms of the Welsh housing quality standard, we have 91 per cent compliance so far with that, and we're not yet at the end of the programme. It's important to remember that we would not expect to be 100 per cent compliant before the end of the programme for that. And actually, compliance in the housing association sector is at near blanket. So, I just wanted to put right a couple of the...
Julie James: Formally.
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. As a political party that was created to unite trade unionists and socialists and to give voice to the working class, and as a Government that believes in equality, social justice and opportunity for all, we absolutely recognise the importance of International Workers' Day as a means to highlight the plight of many workers and to promote workers' rights. But, as a...
