Mike Hedges: Already done.
Mike Hedges: Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response? I, along with several colleagues, most notably Jenny Rathbone, have been opposing letting fees being charged to tenants for several years. Currently, action is being taken in England and has been taken in Scotland. Can the Cabinet Secretary give an indication of the timescale for action being taken?
Mike Hedges: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on Welsh Government proposals regarding letting agent fees? OAQ(5)0113(CC)
Mike Hedges: I speak in support of the second supplementary budget, but there are three points that I want to raise. First, on the health budget, according to the evidence received by the Finance Committee—and I’ll just quote from the report— ‘The Supplementary Budget includes £180 million fiscal, or cash, revenue, £4 million non-cash revenue and £3 million capital to the Health, Well-being and...
Mike Hedges: Whilst improved transport links are not part of Swansea bay city region proposal, which, quite correctly, is based upon improving economic prosperity, and thus the gross value added, there’s a need for improved bus, road and rail links within the city region. Some people are physically remote from employment, retail and leisure facilities, sometimes when they don’t actually live that far...
Mike Hedges: I’ve only got 17 seconds, I’m afraid, Darren. Our ambition for Wales must be to create a high-wage, high-skilled economy, and become a living wage country. That’s what we have to do. ‘We cannot afford it’ and ‘It will cost jobs’ have been the arguments against every progressive change from the abolition of slavery to the minimum wage.
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the opportunity to take part in a debate on working conditions and wages. The reason the Labour Party exists and was formed in the beginning was to defend workers against exploitation. Times in terms of employment have changed, and for most workers, not for the better, over the last 40 years. In the 1970s, the expectation was for full-time, either waged or salaried...
Mike Hedges: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on improving transport links within the Swansea Bay City region?
Mike Hedges: I also welcome the statement. I think perhaps the first thing we should do is thank Rhodri Morgan who, as First Minister, resisted the temptation to sign what have turned out to be very costly PFI schemes in England and Scotland. I think that we owe him thanks for that because there’s about £400 million, perhaps, of money being spent on services this year, in Wales, which wouldn’t have...
Mike Hedges: The other question is: will there be a facility for the future restructuring of payments? I’m not sure, perhaps, if the Cabinet Secretary can tell us now whether these costs will be fixed, or whether they will be variable. If they are variable, will they be able to be restructured?
Mike Hedges: I also wish to thank Caroline Jones for giving me a minute in this debate. I’ve spoken on loneliness in this Chamber several times, and it’s an issue that really does concern me. I intend just to give two examples of loneliness: first the woman who visited me in surgery three times. I asked her after her third visit what she wanted me to do to help her. She replied, ‘I come and see you,...
Mike Hedges: Thank you for taking an intervention. Would you also agree that there are a lot of people, especially amongst the elderly, who don’t want to do their banking online, don’t want to use a computer for doing their banking and want to go and visit their local bank?
Mike Hedges: I heard what you said, but can you just confirm that you wish the Principality, whatever happens, to stay mutually owned, not turn into the type of bank that happened previously, most of which—in fact, all of which—went into financial problems?
Mike Hedges: Who never uses a pause. [Laughter.]
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Counsel General. What consideration has the Counsel General given to how prosecutions of maritime offences could be made more effective?
Mike Hedges: Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response? It’s been called for by local authorities for at least 30 years. Can the Cabinet Secretary explain how it will benefit local authorities, and confirm it does away with the need to prove surplus capacity in order to sell goods and services to the private sector?
Mike Hedges: Cabinet Secretary, I’m sure you’d agree with me that austerity never works. From President Hoover in the United States to Greece today, all austerity has done is make matters worse. We know that when the Institute for Fiscal Studies published its green budget, its director said that the next few years would be defined by the spending cuts announced by George Osborne. What effects will...
Mike Hedges: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the proposed general power of competence for local authorities in Wales? OAQ(5)0086(FLG)
Mike Hedges: 4. What representations has the Counsel General made on behalf of the Welsh Government regarding the enforcement of maritime laws? OAQ(5)0022(CG)
Mike Hedges: I think it is actually on rivers because the fish are moving up and down the river and, to get up and down the river, they have to go through the area where the turbines are. Whether they’ve got a fish pass or whatever they’ve got for it—. I think that, if we need fish passes, they need to get fish passes built into the tidal lagoon. But, technically, I don’t think that it is very...
