Mabon ap Gwynfor: 8. What steps is the Government taking to ensure that appropriate housing is available to meet community need? OQ57882
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you to the Deputy Minister for introducing this item today. May I at the outset just note how entirely deplorable this process is in drawing up legislation in devolved areas? The committee, for example, hasn't had time to properly scrutinise, never mind the ability for the people of Wales to participate in this process. The reason given why we should support these LCMs was because of...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can we have a statement from you as Minister for agriculture, or, indeed, the economy Minister, about how you're going to promote wool? Wool has seen very difficult times recently. Ten years ago, it sold for £1.25 per kilogram, but two years ago, that price fell to 15p. It's good to see the price increasing again. There are a number of steps...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you very much, acting Llywydd. I move the amendment, and thank you to Sam Kurtz from the Conservatives for putting forward this debate in such an eloquent way. This debate comes down to one core principle, namely the right to food. However, unfortunately, far too many people live with food uncertainty, without knowing where their next meal will come from. A quarter of the people of...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I agree. Peredur has made an important point there. There are chapels empty, so why shouldn't the denominations come together to make use of a chapel that's only used part time at the moment? That's an important point from Peredur. But we mustn't forget too that these buildings weren’t constructed solely for religious purposes, but deliberately as community assets, as has been mentioned by...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you very much, acting Llywydd, and thank you very much to Mike Hedges for bringing forward this debate. I've very much enjoyed it, so far, anyway, and I want to limit my contribution. But it's a very timely debate, especially as we consider, some of you who will remember last summer, the discussion in Dwyfor Meirionydd about Capel Tom Nefyn in Pistyll, with the community there trying...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Well, everyone here will be aware of the glory of Dwyfor Meirionydd, the constituency that I am privileged to represent. But, while visitors enjoy the incredible beauty of the region, the truth is that families have to scrape a living there, with income per capita among the lowest in this state and the value of homes having shot up. Indeed, we recently heard about a hut on the beach in...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I thank the First Minister for that grave assessment. Research by Sukhdev Johal and Karel Williams from Manchester university says something similar, warning us that we will see the cost of fuel for homes increasing by £1,500 per year; fuel costs rising by £500 a year; food increasing by 20 per cent. This suggests that the cost of essentials of life will increase by £3,000 per annum, and...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: 1. What assessment has the Government made of the impact of the rising cost of living on households in Dwyfor Meirionnydd? OQ57826
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this debate. I have to confess that I find debates on veterans and the armed forces difficult, not because I am a pacifist, but because of my own experiences with members of my family who served and who suffered horrors that I cannot comprehend whilst serving, but then, having served, those members of my family being neglected by the state...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: What support is available to tackle fuel poverty in Dwyfor Meirionnydd?
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you, Deputy Minister, for this statement. The additional investment is certainly to be warmly welcomed, and I look forward to seeing the work in Barmouth, Fairbourne, Morfa Nefyn and Pencaenewydd. I want to draw one other issue to the Deputy Minister's attention, if I may. The community council in Arthog, which includes the area of Fairbourne, has received an independent report by Dr...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you, Rhys, for bringing this debate forward, and, in thinking about this, I'd assumed that most people would speak of community assets like pubs, chapels and so on. So, I want to ask the Deputy Minister specifically for his views on the Welsh Co-operative Centre's paper on land ownership and the development of co-operative housing. What's become apparent to me, certainly, is the lack of...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: 'Property donors—'
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Can you see that there?
Mabon ap Gwynfor: '—provide one-quarter of funds given to Tory party'. 'UK governing party has received nearly £18m from donors with property interests in the past two years'.
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I have done that. But the point stands: it's these major corporations that are pushing the smaller developers, who are building to meet local demand, out of the market. Whatever form Unnos takes, I'm convinced that it will benefit our local constructors, but this will ensure a programme of significant home building in collaboration with the public sector to ensure that we have quality homes...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Well, the United Kingdom is amongst the most unequal states in the world. That isn't a political statement to cast aspersions on others, but a declaration of fact, according to the research undertaken by, amongst others, the OECD. Poverty is now endemic in some communities, and a large proportion of that is the huge cost that people have to pay towards a place to live, be that a mortgage or...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Well, friends, what is to be? This is a question that many people are asking themselves today. The future is a foreign country, and at this moment it is a terrifying one. But in thinking of this future, it's worth looking back to our history, and history clearly shows us that that war is a waste, a waste of life more than anything else. My aunt Sheila, a Jew, fled Belarus after seeing real...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you, Minister, for that response. But to continue with TB, two years ago, DEFRA published a report showing the financial impact of TB on cattle farms in England and in Wales. It shows that the median cost paid directly by businesses is huge. Over nine months, a farm that has to deal with a chronic case of TB will have to pay £16,000. To put that figure in its...
