Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:54 pm on 30 June 2021.
Thank you for the question. I think I understood it to be, right at the end there, the introduction of deposit passporting. We have a range of measures we're happy to look at in the private rented sector to enable tenants to move between households, where that's necessary for their families, and, as I've said, we're working hard in implementing the renting homes Act, which will allow greater protection for tenants in the rented sector. If Janet Finch-Saunders is very concerned about landlords who are losing income, she would do very well to refer them to our scheme, which would allow them to transfer their house into local authority control for a guaranteed income at the local housing allowance level. Over a large period of time, the scheme has proved very popular with landlords, who no longer have to have the 'hassle'—as she put it—of having tenants. It allows the tenant security and it gives them a secure income, benefiting all parties. So, if she's that concerned, I would highly recommend that she recommends that scheme in a widespread way to her landlord connections.
She's right in saying that we have a large number of reasonable landlords across Wales, to whom we're very grateful. They work hard to make sure their tenants are well looked after, and, in return, of course, they will be grateful that the tenant is now able to get a grant to repay the rent that they were unable to pay through no fault of their own as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. We're not talking about some kind of scurrilous tenant who's wilfully withholding rent; we're talking about perfectly reasonable human beings who find themselves in a situation that they cannot control through no fault of their own, which is why this Government is prepared to step in and assist both them and, of course, the landlords, who then receive the money, and the Government also prevents the human catastrophe of large numbers of people becoming homeless, which we all I'm sure wish to see.