Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 6 October 2021.
Well, you know, Janet, sometimes, I feel just a little bit weary of the Conservatives always opposing measures that they say will prevent employment on the minimum wage and prevent landlords coming into the rented homes sector if there's any kind of regulation, in the teeth of all the evidence to the contrary. So, just to put the record straight, obviously, the renting homes legislation makes the process of renting fairer and more secure, but landlords still have the tools available to them to gain possession where there is a breach of contract.
And just to say that data from Rent Smart Wales shows us that the private rented sector is actually growing at the moment and not shrinking, despite all the warnings from yourself and others. So, we had 207,000 properties in December 2019 and we've got 216,000 in August of this year. The number of registered landlords has also continued to grow; we had 102,711 at the end of December 2019, 106,936 at the end of December 2020 and 107,059 at the end of August. So, you'll see a continuing rise in the number of landlords and not a decline, despite the dire predictions of people on the opposite benches. So, it just isn't true that the introduction of registration licensing and fairer systems deters landlords. And as I continually say, good landlords like good regulation, they want to be fairly compensated for the very good homes that they provide people and all we're doing is making sure that the practices that bring the sector into disrepute of a very few individuals are stamped out so that our good landlords can be rewarded. So, we're working very hard to implement the renting homes legislation, as I said. I am very keen to honour our commitment to have at least six months' prep time for both tenants, landlords and others by issuing them the key documentation they need, and this will begin to happen over the next few months.
In terms of the tribunal, I'm very happy to continue to look at that. I don't disagree, really, with the idea of a housing tribunal, but it has to be set in context, so there are a number of other things that we need to look at at the same time. But I don't really disagree with the principle of that; the devil, as always, will be in the detail.