7. 4. Statement: Rent Smart Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:10 pm on 22 November 2016.

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Photo of Neil McEvoy Neil McEvoy Plaid Cymru 4:10, 22 November 2016

God, this Government does like its hype, doesn't it? Including ‘groundbreaking legislation’: well, I think the only thing that I see groundbreaking in this is the complete incompetence with the implementation of this. It talks about a fit-and-proper test and, importantly, training. Well, it's a pity that that is not extended to Ministers. It was estimated that there were 130,000 landlords in Wales. So, if we have only 55,000 signed up, that's less than half. [Interruption.] Now, Minister, you're talking to me when I'm trying to do this reply to your statement, so, if you’d just give me a couple seconds, then you can come back to me, okay? Now, when I was a teacher, if you got less than 50 per cent, you failed. So, you know, I think this whole implementation is certainly a failure.

You talk about 96 per cent saying that it would make them better landlords. It doesn't actually say that, because 51 per cent said that they didn't find it much use, if you read the report. What this generally does is it places, I'd say, costs on small landlords, people who have another property just for their pension, really, and people are being driven out of the sector—and I’ve picked up casework myself of people being made homeless by landlords selling properties. I think that's important to remember.

If we look at the training, I would ask you: have you read the training? You know, have you read your own documents online, for example?