Julie James: Communities have a central voice in the planning system when local development plans are prepared and planning applications determined. Local planning authorities and developers are encouraged to go further than the statutory minimum to realise the benefits that collaboration and involvement brings to the quality of the built environment.
Julie James: It is clear from data analysis, and from my discussions with partners across the housing sector, that there is significant demand for affordable housing, and social housing in particular. I recognise more homes are needed, which is why building more homes for social rent is a priority for this Government.
Julie James: We also recognise that too few disabled people are in work. The commitments in our employability plan are aimed at tackling this. We will work with our partners to address the issues behind this, including employer attitudes, job design and working practices. We reaffirm our commitment to the social model of disability and to overcome the many and varied barriers that society can put in the...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Now, as I said during my statement on fair work yesterday, we want Wales to be a place where everyone can access work that is decent and life enhancing, free of exploitation and poverty and where people have the opportunity to develop their skills and to progress. We are committed to delivering inclusive economic growth in Wales. We want thriving...
Julie James: Formally.
Julie James: Well, I'm more than happy to make that commitment, because that is exactly what we said: we wanted to see what the Fair Work Commission said. In developing our response to the Fair Work Commission's report on social partnership, I'll be very pleased to make the commitment that we will respond in detail to your committee's report. You're absolutely right in pointing out that it's really...
Julie James: Thank you for that contribution. I entirely agree with the points that you've made. The report, I'm delighted to say—and I'll take this opportunity to just thank all of the fair work commissioners, who were, Deputy Presiding Officer, Professor Linda Dickens MBE, emeritus professor of industrial relations at the University of Warwick; Sharanne Basham-Pyke, the consultant director of Shad...
Julie James: Yes, thank you very much for those points, Dai Lloyd. I'm very, very happy to confirm that we're looking very carefully to ensure that we enhance the well-being of future generations Act when we do this work and, indeed, when we do other work. You'll know that, in my previous portfolio, I was instrumental in getting a piece of research done to make sure that we don't inadvertently weaken that...
Julie James: I thank the Member for that comprehensive contribution. I think I got up to 24 questions in all. I don't think I'll be able to answer all of them today. I may be wrong, it may have been 27—I lost count there at one point—but, nevertheless, a tour de force in terms of some of the issues raised. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint the Member and perhaps please the Deputy Presiding Officer...
Julie James: I informed you all last July that we had appointed the Fair Work Commission, chaired by Professor Linda Dickens, to consider and work alongside our social partners to make recommendations on how Welsh Government can promote and encourage fair work in Wales. We felt it important for the commission to be independent of Government in order for it to be objective and to call it as it is. The...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. In March 2017, the then First Minister of Wales made clear the Welsh Government’s commitment to make Wales a fair work nation. Since that time, a huge amount of constructive work has been done in tripartite social partnership between Government and our business and trade union colleagues to begin to turn that commitment into practical reality.
Julie James: I take the point that you make, and actually I agreed with much of what you said in your speech, and I think the vast majority of zero-hours contracts are indeed exploitative. The issue there is the control issue that you rightly outlined. I want to just qualify it a little, because it is about control. There are zero-hours contracts where the control is shared and people need those flexible...
Julie James: Absolutely, and I'm coming onto that in a moment. Social partnership has indeed, as Dawn Bowden said, been part of our DNA from the outset of devolution. We recognise its critical role in shaping effective policy and we have established many mechanisms to support this, such as the Welsh Ministers' business scheme, and, in the early days of devolution, the business partnership council, the...
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. As a political party that was created to unite trade unionists and socialists and to give voice to the working class, and as a Government that believes in equality, social justice and opportunity for all, we absolutely recognise the importance of International Workers' Day as a means to highlight the plight of many workers and to promote workers' rights. But, as a...
Julie James: Formally.
Julie James: In terms of the Welsh housing quality standard, we have 91 per cent compliance so far with that, and we're not yet at the end of the programme. It's important to remember that we would not expect to be 100 per cent compliant before the end of the programme for that. And actually, compliance in the housing association sector is at near blanket. So, I just wanted to put right a couple of the...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I very much welcome the opportunity to look at the importance of social housing and its benefits here in the Chamber today. It's not often I disagree with a Member who's bringing forward a short debate, but I found myself disagreeing quite vehemently with much of what Caroline Jones said. I'm sure she has the individual caseload that she mentions, and...
Julie James: Yes, I think Joyce Watson makes a number of very important points there, and overlapped with a point I didn't respond to in John Griffiths's submission, actually, which I've just realised, which is the issue about the competence and the building inspectors. So, there is a whole section in the road map around approved inspectors and their competency, and how a joint competent authority might...
Julie James: Well, starting with the last one there, I very much welcome John Griffiths's comments and I agree with him entirely that it's very much in the same space as the committee report, which is really pleasing—that we are able to take it forward together. Going backwards, some of the things that he raises, rightly, are things that we will need to respond to in the round in the report overall. I...
Julie James: Thank you for those very important questions indeed. As I hope I made clear in the statement, we haven't decided what the level of risk that we're going to be looking at is. The group has made a number of recommendations that we want to explore. I think I made it clear that I didn't think that Dame Hackitt's recommendation was fit for Wales as it was too high. But, absolutely; a two-storey...
