Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:27 pm on 21 May 2019.
Yes, I don't disagree with anything that Helen Mary has just said. I just want to reassure Members that our information shows us that all high-rise residential buildings in the Welsh social housing sector have sprinklers fitted, have plans in place to retrofit or are in the process of retrofitting. So, we know that all of those are in plan.
We have much to do in the private sector, however, where the figures are lower. We have a number of actions that we are taking forward, and some of the things that you set out there in your contribution will be some of the things we can do short of legislation. So, adaptations to 'Planning Policy Wales', for example, some of the statutory instruments that we can put in place, guidance—mandatory or otherwise—we can do those faster. What we need to be clear about, though, is what it is. So, until we've worked through with the expert group and the various advisers and the regulators what exactly it is that we're asking people to do, then we can't do that. And that is taking just a little longer than we would like, but we're very determined to get it right.
And, just to use the example I've used several times already, building control, for example—and it is only an example, please don't think we've made this decision, but if we were to decide that local authority building control would be the regulator, then in what way would we compensate them for the loss of the income that they currently have as a result of selling building control services? And what systems would we put in place to ensure that they had access during the build, during the fit-out and then during the occupation phase to ensure that that worked? And I don't know the detail of that yet, so we're not in a position to make those decisions. And that's just one example of a whole stream of them that we have to do. But, yes, in principle, we will change the planning guidance as necessary.
As I said, we are making them statutory consultees, and that will make it a material planning consideration, both for things like the combustibility of the build itself but also access to fire tenders and such other things that are very important in terms of fire safety overall.