David Melding: Can I thank the First Minister for that answer? No doubt he will want to join with me in congratulating the Glamorgan Smallholders, who held an outstanding exhibition in the Senedd last week, displaying the whole range of their work and how innovative it was, and also, I think, for the first time, Llywydd—no doubt with your permission—brought some animals onto the estate. Many Members...
David Melding: 3. What is the Welsh Government doing to encourage and support smallholders in Wales? OAQ54136
David Melding: Will the Minister give way?
David Melding: You make a really important point, and it's really struck me, travelling around America, and particularly the south, how many Americans of African heritage have Welsh surnames—Williams, Evans, Jones, Davies. It really is quite chilling to think of the implications of that.
David Melding: Oh, I'm sorry. [Laughter.]
David Melding: I'm loath to point this out, but I think it's highly disputed that we were the indigenous people of the British isles. The British isles was settled just after the last ice age. Magnificent as our Celtic inheritance is, there were people here before that.
David Melding: I must say I'm enjoying the speeches in this really quite enchanting and important debate. When Alun was talking about Gwyn Alf's experiences at Normandy—it's the seventy-fifth anniversary; very appropriate that we heard that—I did think perhaps you'd go on to Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and his wonderful autobiography where he, of course, describes that he landed with the allies in the south...
David Melding: Well, answer the central question.
David Melding: Strangely enough, this is the precise point I made to your officials. If we can set standards that are higher for those primary care services that we directly provide via the various local health boards, why shouldn't those higher standards have been comprehensively looked at in a full consultation with patients and groups like the Welsh Language Society, and before the relevant committee or...
David Melding: I do think the strategy would be the way to look at all these things comprehensively. You're quite right—it's not just affordable housing, it's the totality of housing. But there are other key areas as well that we could mention here that should be part of a national housing strategy: the eradication of homelessness; increasing security of tenure for generation rent—nearly 20 per cent of...
David Melding: Thank you, Minister, for that very encouraging answer, if I can say. And you quite rightly say you need a strategy to be able to ensure a right exists in practice. And, indeed, the report sketches out what needs to be done in terms of a rights-based national housing strategy. And it's indeed something I've already called for—and I think other parties share this aspiration. And can I just...
David Melding: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Minister, I'm sure you'll join me in welcoming the excellent report that was launched yesterday by Tai Pawb, the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru and Shelter Cymru on the right to adequate housing in Wales. And I commend the report to all Members who have not had a chance to see it yet. The report makes a compelling case for the right to adequate housing to be...
David Melding: I do commend you for reading the report. England and Wales law is often common in this area, and I think there are lessons to be learnt, and I think the House of Commons committee's done a great service here. Estate management fees as well as service charges have been criticised for their size, lack of transparency and the difficulty with which they can be challenged. Those are certainly...
David Melding: Minister, it's Love Your Lungs Week, and I know you will wish to—[Interruption.] Here it is. I know we all wish to commend the British Lung Foundation's work. Indeed, we had our photograph taken outside the Senedd earlier when we were chatting about the need for a clean air Act. But can I tell you that it's also official that the quickest way to travel in Cardiff during the rush hour is by...
David Melding: 2. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the House of Commons' Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s report on leasehold reform? OAQ54065
David Melding: I'm very pleased to take part in this debate—very timely; as Dai just indicated, there's a report just published by the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee on this subject, and I too thought the Chair's foreword was excellent and rather sobering, and I quote: 'Plastic pollution is now one of the greatest challenges facing our planet, and Wales can't solve this global...
David Melding: The Minister will know that the youth opportunity index consistently shows that young people growing up in deprived areas have the least access to opportunities. The index ranks each local authority in Wales by levels of educational attainment and employment outcomes for young people, including a range of measures from GCSE performance to participation in higher education and apprenticeships....
David Melding: Thank you, Minister. One such business is the Welsh Hawking Centre within my region—an attraction that's been on Barry's Five Mile Lane for the last 40 years. It's been recently reported that the business may be in danger of closing, after visitor numbers have halved in the last year. According to Jamie Munro, who runs the centre, this has largely been caused by the works ongoing on the...
David Melding: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on the economic importance of small businesses in Wales’s rural communities? OAQ54021
David Melding: I think there needs to be a reality check here. We should have had a withdrawal agreement approved by Parliament last autumn. That's obviously what the Government was aiming to do. We should have left in March and should now be in a transition period in which all the current payments would be guaranteed until the end of this cycle, and during this period we would have then constructed the...
