Decarbonising the Housing Stock

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 3:00 pm on 14 October 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:00, 14 October 2020

I think that David Melding, as always, makes a very, very good point. One of the reasons that we want to do this in the way that we are is to understand what the build requirements look like for retrofit, to make sure that we can work alongside our skills providers to ensure that we have that right set of skills, and that we understand what the new technology looks like, and how to fit it, and what the consequences of not doing it properly are, and that we can build that into the new system for building quality control, which I was just discussing with Delyth Jewell in an earlier answer.

I know that the Member has taken a great deal of interest in the building safety programme that we put forward, and the pathways, and I think that he concurs with me that there isn't much that is controversial in that. It's just a question of making sure that we get those regulations right, and we get the skills programmes right that go with it. In addition, of course, we have a number of tried-and-tested programmes that the Welsh Government supports: Nest, Arbed. There are a range of schemes available to tenants in the private rented sector, for example. Just very recently—he may not be aware—landlords in the private rented sector with an EPC rating of F and G have been contacted by Rent Smart Wales and offered grants that are available from the Warm Homes fund, ECO and ECO Flex to bring their properties up to a better standard.