Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:37 pm on 27 January 2021.
Thank you, David. I'm really pleased to say that all residents will be covered. You don't have to have been flooded, but you do have to have been evacuated for 24 hours to access the funding. And, as you rightly say, many of the residents will have been affected for much longer periods of time than that.
We're also activating the issue of an additional payment for people who are without insurance. I know the argument is made that this might encourage people not to have insurance, but it's a £500 payment and I can assure anyone who is worried about that that that is not enough to cover your uninsured losses, but it is a help to just get people back on their feet in the extreme circumstances of the first day or so out of their homes.
Exceptionally, because of other pressures on councils at this time, the eligible cost of responding to flooding by councils during tier 4 restrictions will be covered entirely by the Welsh Government funding under the terms of our existing local government hardship fund. There's an additional fund of £6.5 million being made available from now until 31 March for councils for those costs. There are a number of places around Wales that have found themselves in similar situations. So, I'm pleased to say that that's, of course, a pan-Wales fund for everyone who's been affected.
In terms of the Coal Authority, we've had a series of discussions with the Coal Authority and the UK Government. As David rightly said, investigations are being carried out by the Coal Authority to determine exactly what happened in Skewen last week, and we look forward to their findings with concern. And the First Minister is convening a summit with UK Ministers and key partners to help ensure that the devastating incident is not repeated, and we understand, once we've got the report from the Coal Authority, how to take that forward. That will be a summit specifically on the issue in Skewen, but there is a series of conversations with the Coal Authority and the UK Government going on about the fact that the responsibility isn't devolved to Wales. The Coal Authority should be taking responsibility for a large part of the coal tips. That responsibility, of course, lies with my colleague, Lesley Griffiths, but I am part of the discussion group that the First Minister convenes on coal tip safety.