6. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: The Welsh Government Response to the Building Safety Expert Group's Roadmap

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:21 pm on 21 May 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:21, 21 May 2019

I don't disagree with that. As we said, we put an obligation on new build, the big issue for us is how on earth do we get the retrofit to happen. So, nobody's arguing that it should be done, it's just a question of how on earth we're to do it. The other thing is, the technology is changing all the time, so a sprinkler system in 2002 wouldn't have looked anything like the misting systems that you have now. That would have just drenched everything in soaking wet water and would not have made home owners happy. The misting systems that we have now are much more effective and cause much less damage to householder property. So, they have lots of concurrent benefits: they save your life; they also stop your asset being destroyed, or largely. And they're far, far better than having the fire service come and soak your entire house with a high-pressure hose, which will certainly put your fire out but will also render your asset pretty much useless. So, there are lots of things to be taken into account here. And as each sector looks at its asset base and how it wants to preserve it, it comes to a conclusion about how best to look at that. 

Deputy Presiding Officer, we're doing this in conjunction with a number of other reviews as well. We're about to have a review back on the decarbonisation of our existing housing stock, which will have a dramatic impact on other retrofits. So, we need to tie them together so that we're not asking any sector to do three or four lots of retrofit in succession with different legislation coming through. So, we need to bear in mind that if you're going to retrofit a dwelling, you want to do it for everything at the same time and not have a piecemeal approach. So, I accept Mark Isherwood's point. This stuff has been around. Nobody's arguing that we need to do it. We're just talking about what the very best way to have the very best system in Wales is that will endure into the future.