David Melding: I’m very happy to support this motion, as is the Welsh Conservative party. Can I thank Plaid Cymru for tabling it this afternoon? The Paris agreement, as we’ve noted, is very important. It will ensure, we hope, that we keep the temperature increase below 2 degrees centigrade and aim for a reduction of 1.5 degrees—that’s very, very ambitious and many people feel that those sorts of...
David Melding: Minister, I think you’ve heard from everyone that underperforming schools are turned round by leadership and expectations. We should expect our youngsters, regardless of their social background, to achieve really good GCSE results, and then many of them ought to have a tutor immediately as they enter their A-levels who takes them through the process of applying for the top...
David Melding: I must say, Deputy Presiding Officer, that that was rather thin gruel after I was expecting a much richer banquet. We now have clarification about what an additional 20,000 means. Your target in the fourth Assembly was 10,000 social homes; you actually did a bit better than that. Your target for the fifth Assembly is 20,000 social homes. Now, according to your maths, that’s an additional...
David Melding: First Minister, can I welcome the review? I think it is important that you look at other jurisdictions, because we should attempt to follow best practice. If that changes current methods, I think that just shows you that the Government is doing the right thing and not acknowledging that past practice was in any way deficient. Standards do change, technology changes, what’s possible changes,...
David Melding: First Minister, the Member for South Wales West was quite right to point out the number of empty or unavailable homes at the moment—over 20,000. That’s actually more than your target for affordable housing in the whole of this fifth Assembly term. It does seem to me that there are lots of people there who are not only in danger of homelessness, but have not been able to form their own...
David Melding: Can I start by congratulating the new Chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee on leading the committee and the secretariat to produce what I think is an outstanding report? It had to be done very quickly in the earliest days of this Assembly. I think it stands as a powerful document, and I particularly am grateful to all the officials that helped us draft the report....
David Melding: Minister, I think key here is how we tackle TB in the wildlife reservoir, and I have to say, listening to you, I’m glad that you want to eradicate TB. That is your aim, and that is absolutely appropriate, given the consequences, post Brexit, where we could find that various countries will use this as an excuse not to take our beef. But you’ve now said that you do not see a vaccine being...
David Melding: How will the Welsh Government build on the increased public understanding of mental health issues achieved through events such as mental health awareness week?
David Melding: I’ll be happy to take an intervention.
David Melding: First Minister, rational land-use policy needs to identify land, provide good-quality pre-planning application advice, and then encourage speedy use so that we don’t have speculative land banks being built up. How will the legislation achieve these core aims?
David Melding: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on measures to improve the planning process for the provision of housing? OAQ(5)0197(FM)
David Melding: The Conservative Government, and the coalition Government before it, has consistently emphasised that we need to build more houses. We are committed to building—the UK Government, that is, for England—400,000 more affordable houses, which is why I think the Welsh Government finally came forward with their target. Anyway, I just do believe we need more house building, and it’s perhaps...
David Melding: Deputy Presiding Officer, may I move the motion in the name of Paul Davies? Deputy Presiding Officer, if policies are measured by their take-up, then the right to buy has been one of the most outstanding, successfully delivered policies in, really, I think, the history of British and Welsh politics. [Interruption.] Since 1980, 130,000 families have taken the opportunity to buy their own homes...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, the old primary care model is not so attractive to many young doctors, particularly the high capital cost, for instance, that they have to commit to in a partnership. Also, many young GPs want to carry through to a level of specialism and, again, unless there are larger practices, this can be very difficult. It seems to me that these two areas are rich in opportunity to...
David Melding: Minister, I think we all want more collaboration in the heritage sector. I think that is something that would serve us all well, particularly around marketing initiatives. But, you know, we do face some very hard facts here. The national museum has been an independent body since the 1920s, established by royal charter. The reason we established these great institutions as independent bodies...
David Melding: One use may be to lower the voting age to 16 for our elections. This was thought to have transformed voter participation amongst younger people in Scotland when the law was changed for the Scottish referendum. It would also allow us very elegantly to promote in the 14 to 18 age group a whole new concept of civics education and voter participation. This is something we really need to do;...
David Melding: First Minister, do you agree that local authorities are perhaps best placed to be enablers by releasing land, or, a model which is favoured in many European countries is to support neighourhood and community groups that want to join together to build their own schemes? I see this as a way forward for many young people these days who are excluded from family housing to come together and agree...
David Melding: 10. What is the Welsh Government doing to improve voter participation, especially in young people? OAQ(5)0184(FM)
David Melding: Thank you for giving way. How, in a five-year period, can you commit to building an additional 20,000 affordable homes and yet your annual target remains the same at 8,700? It stretches my ability in terms of logic. Now please explain.
David Melding: I feel as if I’m in a privileged position, as the housing spokesperson, because there is a commitment—a specific commitment—in the programme for government that I can react to. In fact, I was quite pleased—possibly even excited—when I read that the Welsh Government aims to deliver 20,000 additional affordable homes during this Assembly term. I then looked into this in a little more...
