Diolch, Llywydd. Thank you for the opportunity to provide a further update to Members on the important issue of building safety. A significant amount of work has been progressed on this most important and complex of issues since I last updated you in July. I'm delighted to inform you that we have today published our response to the building safety White Paper. We received 95 responses, and I thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and views. The responses demonstrate commitment to change, wide-scale support for the spirit and direction of our reforms, and to working with us to shape the future regime.

Our intention is to ensure multi-occupied residential buildings have safety built in, not designed out, that responsibilities for those who own, manage and live in buildings are clear, and that residents have their say. I offer my thanks to all those who've contributed to date, but rest assured there will be more opportunities to contribute and shape policy. I'll be writing out to key partners in the new year to invite them to participate in working groups. We are also developing specific work related to engaging with residents and leaseholders who will benefit from our reforms, and to those who are also facing real challenges in the here and now with existing defects in their buildings. This is to ensure their unfiltered views and insights are properly captured and reflected in the new system and we understand how we can best communicate updates on our progress with building passports and related work. We must work together to find the right solutions for this critical area.

As Members are aware, we have taken the opportunity to work with UK Government to utilise the opportunity to ensure that aspects of their Building Safety Bill apply to Wales. This will help improve the way high-rise residential buildings are designed and constructed, and is in line with the proposals we set out in our White Paper. The UK Government Bill includes proposed changes to the Defective Premises Act 1972, which will see extensions to the time within which a claim can be brought before the courts for defective construction work, and will, in certain cases, have retrospective effect. We’ve also worked with the Home Office on the Fire Safety Act 2021, which has seen important reforms for Wales—notably, the external envelope of buildings now expressly comes within the existing fire safety regime.

Following overwhelming support for the proposals in our White Paper, I wrote in September to all local authorities, fire and rescue authorities and the Welsh Local Government Association regarding establishment of a joint inspection team that will support enforcement activities in relation to existing buildings here in Wales. Recruitment of the team will commence in the new year.

All of this means that the future of building safety in Wales will be immeasurably improved. Whilst I'm excited by these developments, I'm very aware that many of you and your constituents are rightly concerned about the challenges currently faced by existing leaseholders. I have said repeatedly that leaseholders should not have to pick up the bill to make good their buildings, but I've also said that the solutions are not easy. Here in Wales, as in some other parts of the UK, we have said all along that this is about much more than cladding, and not just an issue for those in high-rise blocks. In Wales we have always known that this requires a holistic approach, or risks leaving people exposed to ongoing risk. We are making significant progress, being steadfast in our ambition to resolve issues on that holistic basis.

The response to the building safety passport fund, launched earlier this year, has been extremely positive, with over 100 completed expressions of interest received to date. These expressions of interest will be assessed, and the extensive surveys needed on these buildings to ensure we have a consistent and robust understanding of each individual building’s needs and the overall scale of the task will be taken forward. We are appointing contractors through an established pool of accredited providers to undertake the surveys which ensure consistency in expertise and quality of surveys. We are approaching this in a planned and co-ordinated way that provides a comprehensive picture of safety issues present, and reduces stress and inconvenience to residents. The first surveys will commence early in the new year, prioritising those buildings identified through the expression of interest process as higher risk.

However, I recognise that whilst we are making good progress, there are some for whom the financial pressure of living in these buildings is becoming unbearable. I do not want to see people's long-term futures blighted by bankruptcy, eviction and potential homelessness. That is why I'm committing to a new leasehold support scheme to help a small number of leaseholders who find themselves in very significant financial hardship. Full details of the scheme will be provided in the new year, but I hope to be able to provide the option, in a limited number of cases, for leaseholders to sell up. The scheme will target provision where it is most needed in buildings with identified defects where individual leaseholders cannot sell their properties on the open market and find themselves in significant financial hardship due to escalating costs.

I end, Llywydd, by restating my position: developers and those responsible for these building defects must step up and do more to resolve the crisis. They created these problems and continue to leave leaseholders facing financial hardship and suffering from stress and anxiety. This update demonstrates this Government's ongoing commitment to building safety and the intense work that is being progressed. I welcome the commitment to this agenda from Plaid Cymru and look forward to working in partnership with them on this critical issue going forward. Diolch.