5. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Building Safety

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:04 pm on 2 April 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:04, 2 April 2019

I very much welcome David Melding's contribution. I completely agree with everything he's said. We will be looking to take forward changes to the building regulations—part A, I think it is, of the building regulations—as soon as possible. But, as he acknowledged, we do need to make sure that when we make those changes they are the robust changes that will deliver the system change that we require.

Deputy Presiding Officer, for those Members who have had the chance to see the outline route map, there is, on page 15 of that route map, a quite handy reckoner of the proposed new system for Wales and the various points along that map that we'll want to consider. There are some parts there that will require some legislative change, but others are guidance and other industry standards, and some of it is, as he rightly said, the professional standards that I too was quite shocked to find were not already in the system.

I had the privilege of having a presentation from the building safety expert group who presented their findings to me, and we had a small discussion around it. I was really impressed by both the extent and range and detail of their consideration, but also with the really practical solutions that they were putting forward. These were not gold-plated, don't-move-at-all kind of solutions; these were really practical solutions born out of industry, knowledge and the need to build or retrofit buildings with some speed that then had a resilient system in place that stood the test of time. So, I welcome his comments and I look forward to bringing back detailed proposals about the timescales and so on in May when we make the full response.