Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:01 pm on 16 November 2022.
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'd like thank everyone who's participated in the debate this afternoon, and, in particular, the way it set out why we are debating these issues, because of the tragedy that was Grenfell, and the innocence of people who live within many of these properties that are affected by the subsequent fall-out from Grenfell—it's a tragedy for those individuals. And Joel James touched very powerfully on the mental health issues, the abuse of alcohol and other social implications that have befallen these individuals through no fault of their own, but through the trauma of going from having what they believe was their dream home to a liability around their necks and, ultimately, something that had little or no value whatsoever, but, above all, a potential death trap if a fire ensued in any of those buildings, and, obviously, the continuing fear of what might happen.
And that's why I'm a bit mystified by the Minister's response today. Why wouldn't the Welsh Government want to use law to give rights to those individuals so that if they felt able to, under the law, they could seek redress? I do welcome the initiatives that the Minister and the Government have taken to date in working alongside colleagues across the sector to bring the developers to the table, but there are very many certain areas that do need the law to give protection to the individuals affected, such as the special-purpose vehicles that were put in place to build many of these developments but, once the developments were built, those particular companies folded and the liability almost ceased for those developers. If we were to adopt some of these measures in a Welsh Act that would come forward—