The Effectiveness of Rent Smart Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 11 January 2023.

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Photo of Peter Fox Peter Fox Conservative 1:52, 11 January 2023

Thank you, Minister, for your response. I recognise that Rent Smart Wales has an important role to play in ensuring high standards within the private rental sector in Wales, providing landlords and tenants with that important advice and support they need. However, since being elected to the Senedd, I have received numerous pieces of correspondence from local landlords and agents who have had issues with Rent Smart Wales. For example, they've spoken about the poor customer service, including the inability to speak to staff on the phone due to understaffing. Concerns have also been raised with me about the Rent Smart Wales website often being slow and inaccessible for some. Long waiting times for requests for information and help are really holding things up and stopping them complying with their statutory obligations. Due to these delays, some landlords have noted that they have experienced issues in things like registering and renewing their membership, which has caused even further issues. Minister, what assurances can you provide landlords, agents and tenants that the Government's external review—as you mentioned—of Rent Smart Wales will fully take their experiences into consideration and will learn from this? And what steps is the Government taking to help RSW to address staffing and capacity issues?