Julie James: Well, I think that you've identified some of the issues that we're dealing with. I must say I disagree with some of the solutions that you've put forward. We are working very hard to get the pathways for ex-prisoners in place. The pathway is adequate. We've had it tested. What we need to do is make sure that everybody implements it in the right way. We've currently got a task and finish group...
Julie James: Yes, I completely agree with that last point. Mike Hedges is very well aware that we've been putting an increased amount of money into the proper kind of supply. I recently visited a very good innovative housing project in his own constituency, which he has, I know, been very supportive of, with a view to us getting the supply of good-quality social housing to where it needs to be. And it's...
Julie James: Thank you very much for those points. Again, we're largely in agreement—on that very last one, absolutely. We are working on two things around the Vagrancy Act, first is how far we can go in Wales to disapply it—we can't repeal it, but how far we can go to disapply formally. And then, secondly, how far we can work with partners to ensure that it's not used, even where we haven't been able...
Julie James: Thank you very much for that contribution. I very much welcome the spirit in which you gave it. Just a couple of points, really. On the data, I agree with you completely. We've just taken on another data analyst to do justice, so we're having an analysis done of where the gaps are and what we need to do to get it. I must say that I've been quite startled by some of the things we don't know,...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Welsh Government is committed to preventing and addressing all forms of homelessness. 'Prosperity for All' sets out our vision for a Wales where everyone has a safe home that meets their needs and supports a healthy, successful and prosperous life. We are committed to working together, across the public and third sectors, to prevent homelessness and,...
Julie James: Yes, well, actually, civil contingencies are in the portfolio of the First Minister and the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, but I'm doing the statement on behalf of the Government today—just to be clear about that. The Deputy Minister has been working very hard with third sector partners to ensure a state of preparedness, as good as we can get it, in what we have. I mean, the short answer...
Julie James: Well, thank you very much for that, Dai Lloyd. We have been working very hard behind the scenes to plan, but just to be clear, there is no way to cover off all of the risks inherent in a 'no deal' Brexit, and I echo my colleague Vaughan Gething's remarks about the real shame of watching money that could otherwise be spent on improving services and assisting communities being spent on...
Julie James: Thank you for that series of questions—quite a long series of questions. I'll do my best to do a little bit of an overview about them. I'll just start off by saying that, of course, I very much welcome the multicultural celebrations that Mark Isherwood mentioned, and I'm very happy to support that. It is absolutely essential in this climate of uncertainty and division that we make sure that...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a Welsh Government, it is our view that a 'no deal' Brexit should be unthinkable. As we have already heard, the impacts could be severe and wide ranging. We know that it will be extremely difficult to mitigate the effects of no deal, and that is why we continue to work tirelessly against that possibility, as well as to reduce, so far as we are able, the...
Julie James: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. I also would like to add my thanks to the Chair and to the committee for their detailed examination of the many issues around the emotive and complex subject of voting rights for prisoners. Both the inquiry and the report were thorough and objective. The analysis and recommendations have certainly helped to inform our policy conclusions, which are set out...
Julie James: So, just on that last point, we have been discussing with industry and industry representatives having some kind of licensing scheme. We're very keen to work with the UK Government on that, though, because lots of people in this kind of industry across the board are very regulated and they're very anxious not to have to comply with two different regulatory regimes. But we are very keen on...
Julie James: Yes, I absolutely agree with you. You've only got to look at the front page of Chris Jofeh's report, and the blue changing to red. The significance of that is that there's a stripe for every year of the temperature being recorded and the stark difference between the blue on the left-hand side and the bright red on the right-hand side on the front cover of the report. I did mean to bring it...
Julie James: Thank you for those points. The very simple answer to the last two points is 'yes, absolutely'. And one of the reasons that we have the innovative housing programme is to test some of the technical solutions, and we're very keen on looking to see what can be done. I'm also very keen in Wales on community energy solutions as well. So, I have had meetings with the grid. I've not yet had...
Julie James: Thank you for that, Llyr. I very much welcome the commitment to work with us and I'm hoping to get, in the initial stage, a group of cross-party people together—perhaps the spokespeople, or whoever the party thinks is most able to do the work—just to shape it, really, so that we can take it forward and then we can decide how that group can reference it. But, as I say, Chris Jofeh has...
Julie James: Well, I very much welcome that, David, and what we're hoping to do is thrash out very quickly the parameters of a discussion that would be able to gain the approval of virtually everybody in the Chamber, we would hope, in terms of a way forward. The report goes into a lot of detail about possibilities, but what we need to do is explore how real they are and what consensus there is around some...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I want to start by thanking Chris Jofeh and his independent group of stakeholders for delivering their hard-hitting but potentially transformational report, ‘Better Homes, Better Wales, Better World’. The report, published on 18 July, contains few surprises about the action we need to take, the urgency, the scale and the costs , but it makes for very sobering reading....
Julie James: Yes, I couldn't agree more. One of the reasons it's in the programme is because we want to test out the concept and make sure that it works, but, actually, I visited a similar scheme with Huw Irranca-Davies in his constituency recently, where we were shown a modular home that you could add another bedroom to, or, indeed, actually pick the whole thing up and put it down somewhere else, if you...
Julie James: Yes, she's absolutely right, Merthyr Valleys Homes have done some sterling work in a range of innovative ways and it just demonstrates that the innovative housing programme is not the only innovation that we're looking at, because they've done a lot of that with mainstream social housing grant and so on. So lots of things are possible. Dawn Bowden's absolutely right, what we're looking to...
Julie James: Well, just dealing with a few of those things there, building on previous learning is absolutely built into it. And so understanding what has been built in the past, how that worked, why it worked and whether it's scalable is a really big thing, but whether it's scalable is one of the big things as well. So it's all very well to build one house, but whether you can build 400 of them...
Julie James: I completely concur with Mike Hedges's analysis of this. We absolutely do need to get councils to build again at scale and pace. We've been very clear about that. We've been working really hard with the councils across Wales to change the rules, now that the cap has been lifted on the housing revenue accounts, both with stockholding and non-stockholding authorities, to make sure that they...