Lee Waters: Well, Mabon ap Gwynfor makes a number of fair points there, and he makes two essential criticisms that the social housing system has not kept up with demand for many decades, which is correct, and that the private sector housing is providing too many of the same types of houses and not catering to the range of needs, such as bungalows, and there's a complex set of problems beneath both of...
Lee Waters: No.
Lee Waters: We exceeded our previous housing commitment in Wales and we continue to build on this. Our 20,000 homes target focuses on increasing homes within the social sector. We've allocated record levels of investment in housing for the next three years to support the need for homes across Wales.
Lee Waters: The UK Government’s failure to step up will be devastating for households across the UK. We've taken swift action—doubling the winter fuel payment to £200 for this year and next, introducing a more generous council tax rebate than the UK Government and increasing our discretionary fund for householders who are struggling.
Lee Waters: No, indeed, until last week. Forgive me, Llywydd, I keep hearing her declarations of interest in my head, so it stuck. We have funded a green taxi pilot in Denbighshire, in Pembrokeshire and in Cardiff to 'try before you buy' and we've installed rapid chargers in those areas, and we're planning rapid charging points on the strategic road network this year, as well as, as I mentioned, the...
Lee Waters: Well, we did publish an action plan in October last year, and I'm pleased that, last Friday, the UK Government eventually published its long-awaited EV charging strategy. That set a target for a tenfold increase in public charging across the UK by 2030, so we welcome that. The UK Government holds mainly the levers on this, and we are supporting local authorities to apply for the Office for...
Lee Waters: We're investing in rolling out publicly accessible charge points to support the switch to electric vehicles in line with our EV charging strategy. We're also mapping plans with industry to transition to zero-emission buses, piloting taxi and private hire vehicle schemes, piloting e-bike schemes and investing in zero-emission car clubs.
Lee Waters: Well, I very much enjoyed the Member's meanderings through the information superhighway. I'm not sure it entirely hits the point, though, but I'm willing to look at that, because, obviously, that does need updating. But as I mentioned in my answer to Jane Dodds, we are funding Community Energy Wales to be the focal point of providing advice on how to take forward community energy schemes, and...
Lee Waters: Well, as Jane Dodds rightly mentioned, we have that target to increase energy generation by over 100 MW between now and 2026 by public bodies. We've seen the excellent example of Morriston Hospital, where a solar farm has now been opened that is powering the hospital entirely for a significant amount of time. We are very committed to working with community energy groups, because, as I said,...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question. We've successfully supported community energy since 2010. We currently provide support through the Welsh Government energy service and by grant funding Community Energy Wales. We are scaling up our support for local and community energy by implementing the recommendations of the renewable energy deep dive.
Lee Waters: Well, Huw Irranca-Davies will remember that, at the Conference of the Parties in Glasgow, we were the only Government in the UK that stood alongside Denmark and Sweden and New Zealand and others to establish the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, pledging not to extract further oil and gas. Wales has significant resources, potentially, of both, but we have taken a clear principled decision that...
Lee Waters: Well, I agree that battery energy storage is definitely one of the things that we need to be speeding up, and certainly there is potential from green hydrogen to act as a source for holding that stored energy. But, again, we have a contribution from the Conservatives this afternoon that is focusing on nuclear and there has been very little emphasis on renewables. There was a mention of...
Lee Waters: The UK Government has a legal duty to ensure the UK's energy security, and we expect bold action in its upcoming energy security strategy, which, I understand, has been delayed again. In Wales we are accelerating renewable energy deployment, supporting local energy markets, planning and piloting innovation, to build a net-zero energy system for the future.
Lee Waters: Well, Sam Rowlands will know about the pressure on resources and that's pressure that has intensified as a result of the spring budget where we are £600 million less well off in this budget round than we were anticipating over the next three years, because of cuts made by the Chancellor. So, we simply do not have the money to do all the things that we would like to do. So, the creation of...
Lee Waters: The Member is right; the Hirael is challenged with being at risk from a combination of tidal, pluvial and fluvial sources—from the sea, the river and the sky. This will get worse as climate change intensifies—we know this is the case—and Hirael is particularly vulnerable. So, we are investing, as she mentions, £213 million in flood schemes, and this includes a scheme in Hirael bay. It...
Lee Waters: Diolch. Gwynedd Council are designing a scheme to reduce the risk of flooding and coastal erosion at Hirael bay. Natural Resources Wales are also reviewing the modelling data of the Afon Adda. The review will confirm the current standard of protection and consider the potential future risk associated with climate change.
Lee Waters: Well, after more than 10 years of austerity, there isn't a single public body in Wales that has the capacity that they would wish to have, and I think that is just a fact that we have to deal with. NRW is no different from Conwy council or from any other public body, and we, all of us, have to live within our means. There are discussions going on with NRW about how we prioritise. For example,...
Lee Waters: The purpose of these deep dives—and I must say I'm rather going off the title as it's beginning to sound a little pretentious; as I've said, if we keep having deep dives like these, we'll end up with the bends—is a rapid review of barriers, and they start as an open-ended process. In the ones that I've carried out on woodland creation and renewable energy, and I'm now doing something...
Lee Waters: Well, my favourite right honourable is the Rt Hon Elin Jones, and I'd much prefer that she were our focus, rather than Boris Johnson. I really feel the UK Government are not learning the mistakes of the past. You've just criticised the energy system for being dependent on Russian oil and gas and we're now racing into the arms of Chinese investors to be committed to large nuclear builds....
Lee Waters: The Member is rehearsing arguments we had not a matter of weeks ago in the Senedd Chamber, and I don't intend to go through them all again, other than to say we are satisfied, as we set out in that debate, that we have a mechanism to do that, we have a long-term plan, and there are already policies and actions in place that will do that. As she mentioned, the deep dive was conducted to look...
