5. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:46 pm on 17 March 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:46, 17 March 2020

Thank you very much, Alun Davies, for that. On that last one, I'm very interested, and we haven't yet done it, but I've had the suggestion made and you've made it very ably this afternoon, to start to speak to providers about what can be provided via BT and so on—other providers are available—for that conferencing facility. We will be working with local authorities to see what we can set up for voluntary groups just being able to use their own phone at home and to be available to talk to somebody locally and just to set up the social engagement groups. There are all kinds of things going on on social media, so resourcing the local authorities to be able to assist in co-ordinating that and making sure it spreads to areas where, perhaps, it hasn't started spontaneously. 

What we're saying at the moment is that we will ensure that all local authorities in Wales have both the support and the resources they need to respond to the crisis. I don't know what that looks like yet, but we've assured them that, whatever that looks like, we will be able to step up to that for them and, obviously, we're lobbying the UK Government on an hour-by-hour basis for support for ourselves as well. It's clearly absolutely essential that we have people doing the right thing for the right reasons at the right time and not worrying about whether they can afford it right this second, or not. So, we've made that very plain and we'll continue to do that. I think that's really important. In tomorrow's meeting with the third sector, social enterprises, we will be discussing business support for social enterprises. I met yesterday, I think it was, with the Wales Co-operative Centre, and we will be putting in that kind of level of support, so I could not agree more: social enterprises across the country are absolutely part of the fabric of where we are.

My colleague the Deputy Minister, Hannah Blythyn, is looking at citizens advice bureaux and what we can do there and with the credit unions as well to see how we can co-ordinate some of the approaches. So, backing up the credit unions, for example, to be able to assist people who have no savings and all the rest of it through no fault of their own, because of the gig economy, will be an essential part of what we do as well.