Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:49 pm on 10 May 2022.
I'd like to thank you, all your predecessor Ministers with housing responsibility, and all the other stakeholders involved in bringing WHQS to all our social housing. That doesn't mean to say there isn't more work to be done. I've still got tenants living in no-fines accommodation that is freezing cold in winter. I do want to take you up on the opportunity you've given us in your final paragraph to consider how we're going to get other tenures up to the standards that we currently have in social housing, because living in a band D or worse private rented property is a guarantee of discomfort, unaffordable heating bills, and, for many, having to choose between heating or eating. In the context of the Tory cost-of-living crisis, we really are looking into the abyss. I don't think we can take the long view, and we definitely can't stand still. We need to act urgently now. We have to remember that it was in 2007 that Gordon Brown introduced the zero-carbon standards for all new housing, which were torn up by George Osborne in 2015—one of the most disastrous measures in the context of the climate emergency. We really do need to know when are we going to get much stronger Part L standards for new housing, because retrofitting is much more complicated and expensive than correcting the greed of private housebuilders who want to build substandard homes. So, it seems to me that—