6. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Homelessness

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:08 pm on 3 June 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:08, 3 June 2020

So, on the recourse to public funds, Delyth, you'll know that we've already written to the UK Government regarding the changes required to ensure that nobody is returned to the streets, including people with no recourse to public funds. We, of course, have housed and supported people with no recourse to public funds, as a result of the public health legislation that the pandemic has allowed us to act under. So, in order to protect public health, we have to able to protect individuals and, therefore, we have the power to do it.

Again, once the pandemic is over, we will not be able to use that legislation, and so it is imperative that the UK Government look at that. We've emphasised two things: the common humanity of that and the need to treat everybody as a human being; and secondly, actually, if you really wanted to do it on a financial basis, there just aren't very many people—you're not talking about very much money and that makes it all the worse if people won't consider doing it. So, anything that any individual Member of the Senedd or party in the Senedd wants to do to back us up in writing to the UK Government, I'd very much welcome that. I know that we've discussed that previously, and I would very much like to be able to do that. 

And then, in terms of the rest of it, there are three bits on the supply side. So, on the state of the current housing market, you'll know that we've worked very hard on the Welsh housing quality standard, and that was thought to be impossible when we put it in place, and indeed we've met it, and even in the pandemic we've managed to get to the target that we had. We are changing Part L, as they're called, building regulations, and they'll be coming in front of the Senedd soon, so that new build is built like that. And then there's a huge issue about retrofit in the private sector. So, we will be addressing that.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has meant that we will lose some of the legislation and statutory instruments that we were hoping to bring forward in this Assembly term. I am very happy to work with all parties to make sure that we can put anything that we can all agree on in all manifestos so that officials can carry on working on it in the full knowledge that whoever forms the next Welsh Parliament Government will want to take that forward, and that will give some certainty to that piece of work.