Julie James: Thank you, Janet. Once again, you've conflated about five different things there, so I don't intend to proceed to unpick it. The green Brexit you talk about, of course, had we just stayed inside the European governance arrangements, we wouldn't have needed to do anything in addition, and one of the big issues for us will be maintaining parity with European laws going forward, and not having...
Julie James: So, again, Janet, we're very keen indeed to work with a group of scientists to understand exactly what is meant by recovery and restoration. So, again, these aren't just about the targets; these are about the processes that we need to put in place in order to be able to do them. We're currently—as you know, because you were in the committee when I was giving evidence as well—undertaking a...
Julie James: Thank you, Janet. So, at the time we declared the nature emergency, I made it extremely plain that we were looking to see what the outcome of COP15 was before we set the fundamental statutory targets for nature recovery—so, actually, the halt of nature decline and then nature recovery, because we need to achieve both. We've also said we will of course sign up to the 30 per cent by 2030...
Julie James: Diolch, Jane. We absolutely are aware of the real cost-of-living crisis, particularly for people on off-grid oil, as you say. Just to say, we are currently consulting on the next iteration of the Warm Homes programme—so, to encourage everyone to respond to that. That's in order to support households to transition to both lower carbon heating, but also actually to assist with their domestic...
Julie James: Diolch, Paul. I am aware of the exhibition you have because I am a proud member of the mailing list for Oriel y Parc there—a place I often visit on my holidays—so I was aware of it. I'm actually hoping to go down and see the exhibition shortly. Yes, of course, we're very keen to assist with all such exhibitions and to publicising them—and very happy to join with you in publicising that...
Julie James: Diolch, Paul. The Welsh Government is fully committed to addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. We have raised awareness as part of our recent COP Cymru and Wales Climate Week events, and we continue to work closely with local authorities to support communities to understand and to address the climate emergency.
Julie James: Well, Carolyn, the way that that works at the moment is, obviously, we allocate an unhypothecated capital grant to local authorities as part of their overall funding settlement. We try very hard not to hypothecate funding in the way that you suggest, because obviously what would happen is that would be taken off the overall unhypothecated grant and held centrally. We don't think that is the...
Julie James: Yes, thank you, Gareth. I appreciate the difficulties caused to the local road network, but it is the responsibility of the local authority to maintain and ensure that resilience of those assets. We haven't yet had a funding bid from Denbighshire regarding Llannerch bridge. A sum of £18,491,000 was awarded from the resilient roads fund in 2021-22 to local authorities in Wales for works to...
Julie James: Thank you, Gareth. Denbighshire were successful in their application for £440,000-worth of works for post-storm repairs to flood and drainage assets as a result of storm Christoph at various locations. Post-storm repairs were 100 per cent funded and the grant award of the works were subject to technical appraisal, ensuring flood funding eligibility criteria.
Julie James: Natural Resources Wales is responsible for designating SSSI's where sites are of special interest by reason of their flora, fauna, geological, geomorphological or physiographical features. Joint Nature Conservation Committee guidelines informs the selection but are also intended as a public statement of the selection principles for all interested parties.
Julie James: We are working closely with local authorities across a range of programmes and strategically through the partnership council for Wales and the decarbonisation strategy panel.
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I thank all the Members for their contributions on this. Just to answer one of the particular things that was raised that I didn't cover in my opening remarks, I do understand the frustration of Members on the timing of the supplementary LCMs. We originally thought that we could table a single, supplementary LCM in relation to this Bill that covered all the amendments made to...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill is a short Bill that starts the process of dealing with a very big topic, leasehold reform. The Bill's stated policy objectives are to make leasehold ownership fairer and more affordable for leaseholders by ensuring that freeholders will no longer be able to make financial demands for ground rent of new leases. The...
Julie James: Thank you very much, Jenny. I'm certainly well aware of your enthusiasm for Part L, which we are hoping to bring forward early next year, and particularly in terms of the energy efficiency of homes, and so on. Of course, building regulations cover a lot more than just energy efficiency; they cover a whole series of aspects of safety, as you've just outlined. And we have made one or two...
Julie James: Diolch, John. I admire your committee's constant asking of me about timetables for the Bill, but I'm afraid my answer is the same as the one I gave in committee, which is that we will negotiate the timetable when the Bill is introduced with yourselves, and that we hope to have the maximum time for scrutiny at the committee stage in particular, because I really do want to make sure that this...
Julie James: Diolch, Rhys. I welcome your support. In the previous Senedd, we had good cross-party working. Janet Finch-Saunders and our colleague David Melding, in particular, took an interest, and I'm absolutely certain that when the Bill comes forward, we'll be able to work collegiately across the Chamber on putting the very best safety regime in place for the future in Wales. As you rightly say, in...
Julie James: Diolch, Peter. I can see that my colleague the Minister for finance is listening to your question there. It's in her portfolio, but I can confirm that we've had some preliminary discussions about whether or not a lengthening of the time period to sell the house where it's clearly a bridging arrangement could be contemplated. We haven't reached the end of those discussions yet, but I'm very...
Julie James: Diolch, Mike. Yes, of course, we'll be able to do technical briefings for residents in buildings to assist them to apply in the same way we have done for the building passport scheme. We're very keen to make sure that people understand the full range of help and assistance that is available to them. Also, of course, as part of the expressions of interest, we're able to make some preliminary...
Julie James: Diolch, Mabon. I won't repeat what I said to Janet Finch-Saunders in terms of the timing of this. It's obviously very frustrating, and we all have in mind the tragedy of Grenfell and the fight of the people who survived that for justice, of course, but the truth is that this is an incredibly complex area of law, and it's been at the very top of my agenda the entire time I've been housing...
Julie James: Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders. I think, broadly, we're in the same place. You've slightly conflated the problems of the existing leaseholders with what the new regime might look like. So, just in terms of the new regime going forward, once we take the legislation through, of course the Senedd and its committees will have a chance to look at that legislation, scrutinise it and add in or...
