7. What action does the Welsh Government take when local authorities submit inadequate housing needs assessments? OQ57676

Llywydd, the 2019 affordable housing review proposed reforms to local housing needs assessments, including new review and sign-off powers for the Welsh Government. Details of this new approach will be published next month.

Thank you, First Minister. The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 places a legal obligation and a statutory duty on local authorities in Wales to both assess and provide for residential and transit provision for Gypsy and Traveller communities, and yet nearly eight years later several local authorities have either no permanent sites or insufficient sites for Gypsy and Traveller communities, or inadequate transit stopping places when they are on their journey. So, year after year, local authorities have had funding earmarked by Welsh Government to enable them to make appropriate provision, and yet year after year, this money has been left lying on the table. So, what action will Welsh Government take to ensure that local authorities step up to the plate on their responsibilities to the Gypsy and Traveller communities, as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, if passed, will criminalise anyone who stops at an unauthorised site?

Well, Llywydd, I was very pleased that the Senedd voted in line with Welsh Government advice and chose to withhold legislative consent on those clauses in that Bill that infringe the rights of Gypsy and Traveller communities. I share the frustration expressed by Jenny Rathbone, Llywydd. It was an Act promoted by the Welsh Government, of a Labour Government, that led in 2014 to those assessments of need. So, the legislation is there, and, every year, the Welsh Government provides funds to assist local authorities to comply with their duties within Part 3 of that 2014 Housing (Wales) Act, and it is disappointing therefore that progress has not been made in all parts of Wales. When I was the finance Minister, Llywydd, I remember receiving advice that, because the money wasn't being taken up, the money allocated by the Welsh Government should be reduced and used for other purposes. I declined to follow that advice, because I wanted to be sure that the impediment to providing provision would not be because the money wasn't available. 

Now, in this month, we will see the results of the Gypsy/Traveller accommodation assessments that we had to delay last year because of the pandemic. We're expecting to see them in now by the end of this month. And through the proposals in the race equality action plan, we will move to review the compliance of every local authority with those duties through what will now be an annual review. That review will adopt a consistent and robust approach to monitoring compliance, and it will help us with the implementation of the recommendations, as I said, of the 2019 review that does propose additional powers for the Welsh Government in the oversight of the plans that local authorities are obliged to provide.