8. Debate on the Local Government and Housing Committee Report: The provision of sites for Gypsy, Roma and Travellers

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:53 pm on 23 November 2022.

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Photo of Joel James Joel James Conservative 4:53, 23 November 2022

As I'm sure everyone here will agree, it was very pleasing to see that the Minister has accepted all the recommendations made in the committee report, but, to be honest, with such slow progress of this Government in meeting its duty to provide appropriate sites in the last eight years, there is little to be reassured about in terms of what will be different this time. Reading the report, I have no doubt that this Government views Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities as second-class citizens. It is an appalling state of affairs that this community find themselves in and, frankly, I'm genuinely surprised that the Minister has allowed this situation to deteriorate to where it is.

I and colleagues here—and I'm sure many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities around the country as well—are deeply concerned that these recommendations have been accepted by the Government with a typical view of having little to no intention of actually implementing them, and I'd like to use this time to urge the Minister in every possible way to please take these recommendations seriously, because there's been an immeasurable impact on the communities who are waiting for implementation of policy.

I would like to make the Minister aware that the extremely slow progress on the implementation of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 is not providing sufficient sites for GRT communities, and this means that there are families under legal enforcement to leave their own land, with no alternative options provided; that there are families encamped on pieces of land for more than 10 years, with very basic or no facilities; and there are families who, despite their registered need, have seen no progress on additional pitches for members of their growing families, and who have now become technically homeless and living on roadsides. This is an appalling situation for them to be in, and it is of this Government's making.

I would therefore like to urge the Minister to take responsibility and show some leadership here and ensure that outstanding reviews are implemented, because it is having some serious consequences for communities. For instance, the 'Anti-racist Wales Action Plan', created to deliver the recommendations and the programme of work that has been produced, has not produced an update on any progress since its publication in July, and this means that people are left in a state of limbo because there are no timelines for when work will begin. Similarly, the Gypsy and Traveller accommodation assessments—GTAAs—for all 22 local authorities, which were submitted to the Welsh Government in February of this year for review, have yet to be completed, and the failure to complete the review means that Gypsies and Travellers do not know that their needs have been included for future site provision, and plans to address acknowledged accommodation needs for families cannot progress until replacement GTAAs are adopted.

As we are aware, the committee report found that there is a significant lack of transitory provision in Wales. In fact, there are no available transit sites or designated stopping places in Wales, and this does indeed fall far short of meeting the needs of Gypsy, Roma and Travellers, because it limits their ability to lead a nomadic lifestyle. Since the Minister has accepted a recommendation that cites the anti-racist action plan as the driver to deliver transit provision in Wales, I am interested to know what action the Government is taking to achieve the stated goal of at least five pitches in both north and south Wales, bearing in mind that a significant number of the draft local authority GTAAs have assessed that they have no requirement for transit provision in their areas.

I also want to bring to your attention the views of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities who have expressed their concerns that they're just not being listened to and are kept out of the decision-making processes that concern them. We've heard from communities in Denbighshire and Conwy, who have said that councillors are disrespectful to them and ignorant of their needs, and that they are not taken seriously by Welsh Government officials or advocacy services, who believe that they know what is best for them without actually including them in any decision-making processes, and in particular, they believe that officials are encouraging the erroneous view that transit sites are not needed.

Moreover, because these communities have been moved off land and, in some cases, off land that they own, without appropriate sites to go to and having to resort to camping on road verges or wherever they can, they feel that they're being viewed unjustly as criminals by the outside world, and the longer this process takes of actually building both transit and permanent sites, the more entrenched the view of them being criminals is becoming. This unjust negative view is the result of the inaction of this Welsh Government in implementing its own policies. In this regard, given the lack of progress to date on how the Welsh Government will ensure that transit provision is progressed, the Welsh Government needs, in my view, to provide an explanation of what nomadic communities should do in the meantime, now that trespassing has become a criminal rather than civil offence and that there are no available legal places for vehicles to stay whilst travelling.

And finally, I believe that this Government needs to state its plan on how to ensure that the urgency to deal with the issues that the GRT community face are acted upon and properly monitored. And I think that the GRT communities who have been affected by all this deserve an apology from this Government for the situation it has placed them in. Thank you.