Council Homes

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 3:03 pm on 4 March 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:03, 4 March 2020

Suzy Davies raises a very good point, and we have been having those exact discussions. We're also having discussions with the various warranty and accreditation arrangements—so, the International Organization for Standardization and so on—because some of them are very old indeed and were thought up in the 1970s when lots of the new materials didn't exist. So, for example, it's often the case that they ask for reinforced concrete in various bits, which—there's no need to have that anymore. So, we have been working very hard to make sure that what we bring forward can get the right warranties, and, once it's got the right warranties, then the lenders are very happy to go ahead, but they do like to have the warranties and the ISOs in place. So, we have—. I assure you that very much part of the innovative housing programme has been testing the claims that the manufacturers make about the various types of house building, with a view to us assisting them to get the warranties in place necessary to get the houses properly financed.