Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 19 May 2021.
I thank Adam Price for those questions. I don’t remember us having a gymanfa ganu previously in this Senedd, but that’s an idea that we can all agree on. I remember the Minister Lesley Griffiths reporting back to me on the gymanfa ganu in Builth Wells each year, so that’s a tradition that we can think about.
On housing, of course I agree on the importance of housing. One of the things that I did when I came to office as First Minister was to appoint someone at Cabinet level to be responsible for policy and practical approaches to housing, and Julie James continues to have responsibilities in that area.
When we’re discussing second homes and house prices and young people who want to remain in villages and so on, well, what I want to do is to put a radical proposal forward. There is a new unit within Government that has been working in this area. It’s looking at planning and taxation, but that, as I said last week, is one of the areas where I’m eager to work with others to see if there are new and different ideas that we could adopt in order to assist young people who are in that position, and of course to safeguard the future of the Welsh language.
We have set an ambitious number of new builds that we want to provide for rent and we’re going to be dealing with that in a number of different ways. However, working with local authorities is one of the things that we’re very eager to do, and to do more with them in order to put in place the resources and the people who have the necessary skills in order to build housing for the future and homes that can make a contribution to dealing with climate change too.
Now, in terms of child poverty, as we have stated in the past, we are now using new data that came out of the pupil level annual school census system and that was coming in as we were all out on doorsteps, involved with campaigning. However, officials are now working on that and that will be passed on to the new Minister for education. I do want to build on the OECD report in order to create new capacity to help us in the economy. I don't want to see a new agency outwith Government as the way to do that. I don't see that as the way forward. I don't want to see Ministers coming to the Senedd to say, 'Well, that's not my responsibility—we've passed that responsibility to some sort of new quango established here in Wales.' So, I do agree that we need to develop that new capacity, but the way to do it is in a way that is accountable to this Senedd.
I agree with Adam Price's comments on the reports on the proposed trade deal with Australia that the UK Government is putting in place. At a governmental level, we have been speaking to the UK Government and making points from a Welsh perspective. This evening, there is that almost weekly meeting between First Ministers and Michael Gove, and I have conveyed some comments already to his office, stating that I want to raise these issues this evening and I want to be clear as to what we in Wales thought about some of those ideas.
I've been speaking this morning to the new Counsel General about the commission, and he will want to bring a statement to the Senedd before summer recess in order to set out some of the ideas as to how we can draw cross-party consensus but also bring others into this debate about the future and how we can draw Wales' future. In the view of my party, that should be within the United Kingdom but within a United Kingdom that is reformed in a way that can lead to future success.
And finally, Llywydd, just to say that I have issued a statement already on the events in Palestine and in Israel, which does highlight international law and which has been agreed with the multifaith forum that we have here in Wales.