Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:35 pm on 3 November 2020.
Thank you, Janet. I think we were broadly agreeing with each other that it's a really good innovation to have factory-built housing that's carbon neutral or carbon passive onsite, and we were certainly both convinced of the idea that building houses in a wet, muddy field was not optimal.
We will be publishing the recommendations of the independent assessment panel on the IHP bids once all applicants have been informed of the decisions and we've been able to go through with them. And as I said in the statement, we will then be working with all the unsuccessful bids to make sure that we are able to bring them up to the standard that we expect in order for them to be successful. So, it isn't a question of us not wanting to build the other houses, it's a question of making sure that the bids, as submitted, are actually deliverable and built to the right standard and so on, and actually are in the right places as well, because it's not just about building housing anywhere. I think you were agreeing with me that it is about building the right house in the right place for the right person.
You specifically asked as well about Welsh supply chains for other materials, and of course we're looking at that. I'm very keen on using Welsh slate and Welsh wool and a number of other products, actually. Quite a lot of recyclates that are produced in Wales can also be refashioned into insulation materials or substitutes for cement and so on. So, we're very, very keen on ensuring that all of the findings from the IHP programmes from previous years as well as for this one utilise all of those local supply chains in order for us to be able to maximise that foundational economy type of work that we're looking at. So, I can assure you that we're working very hard to do that. We've also been doing a supply chain analysis for the whole of the IHP programme to ensure that, where there are things that are coming from outside the Welsh supply chain, we understand where that is and we understand whether we can get a start-up or a small business to step into that space. So, this is all about making sure that these lovely, carbon neutral, carbon passive houses are also built using local labour and local supply chains as far as is humanly possible. So, I think we share all of those ambitions—absolutely.
So, we are working very hard with a range of different RSLs and councils across Wales to make sure that they understand what the findings of the original IHP schemes were and what the feedback is so that we can help them to submit the new bids so that we roll out the learning of the earlier years of the programme. One of the lovely things about this programme is that we're able to build this at scale now. And this is of a serious scale, compared to the two or three that were being built elsewhere, because we've got the data coming back from those houses from those first years and we know that they do what they said they would do—well, almost all of them have done what they said they would do. So, that's great as well. It's a really big success story and I absolutely want to make sure that we work with as many people across the piece as we can to ensure the survival of that industry and the growth of the industry.
And then, in terms of the skills, you're absolutely right. You accurately assessed that what we will need to do is make sure that we work with all of our training providers and Community Housing Cymru and all the rest of it to make sure that we roll those skills out as necessary so that we get the next generation of tradespeople skilled up as we go, so that we can roll this out into the private sector market as well. At the moment, it's largely social build and very wealthy people. One of the other things we're doing is making sure that we de-risk this to the point where the lenders and insurers are happy to give you a mortgage or insure your house, even though it's built with this very new construction technique, and that's very important as well, so that average Mr and Mrs Jones can also use this technique to build their house going forward. So, that's where we're aiming to go with it.
So, I think, broadly, we're on the same page and I'm more than happy, once we've had the right conversation with all the applicants who were successful and unsuccessful, to publish the report so that you can see where we are and who we're working with as we go forward.