Of course, the purpose of the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill is to facilitate a new proactive approach to regulating social housing landlords on consumer issues. Such issues include safety, transparency and tenant engagement. This Bill has three main objectives: to facilitate a new proactive consumer regulation regime, refine the existing economic regulatory regime, and strengthen the regulator for social housing's powers to enforce the consumer and economic regimes.

Approximately 530 properties in Wales are owned and/or managed by an English provider that will be subject to the changes described by this Bill. The Minister for Climate Change has described it as appropriate for the provisions to be dealt with within the UK Parliament Bill, due to the small numbers of social housing stock in Wales owned or managed by an England-based provider. Describing the clauses as 'positive' for tenants in Wales, the Minister recommends the Senedd consents to the provisions, and I'm grateful to the Minister for that. The Minister for Climate Change also noted the positive impact of the Bill on Welsh tenants through the strengthening of tenants' rights as a justification for granting consent, and again I agree.

This is set to be achieved by making safety and transparency explicit parts of the regulator's objectives. The UK Government would remove the serious detriment test—a legislative barrier to regulator action on consumer issues. Also, the UK Government will require landlords to nominate a designated person for health and safety issues. Social housing landlords would also be subject to new requirements for electrical safety checks. This objective is to ensure that providers are well governed and financially viable to protect homes and invest in new supply, through refining the regulator's current economic regulatory role. This will protect tenants from the risks of provider insolvency, while supporting the development of new homes, and that is something that we on these benches have long been calling for. The Bill also provides for tough new enforcement powers to ensure the regulator can effectively intervene when required. The regulator would have the appropriate tools to deal with non-compliance by social landlords, encourage landlords to maintain standards, and avoid the threat of enforcement action.

Thirty-two provisions in the Bill have been identified by the Welsh Government as requiring Senedd consent, including clause 9, designating a health and safety lead; clause 18, allowing the regulator to issue a code of practice on consumer standards; and clause 24, enabling the regulator to take emergency remedial action against serious health and safety risks. There are an additional two clauses that the Welsh Government has identified as maybe requiring consent. Clause 33 enables the Secretary of State to make provision that is consequential on this Bill by regulations. The Welsh Government acknowledges that this is outside of the Senedd's competence. Based on the relation to other provisions in the Bill, the Welsh Government have claimed that the Senedd's consent is required; however, in and of itself, the specific clause does not fall within the devolved remit.

Supplementary legislative consent memorandum No. 3 was laid before the Senedd on 17 November 2022. Such amendments included a new power for the regulator to set a standard on matters relating to competence and conduct of staff, which the Secretary of State could require the regulator to set; and also to impose a duty on the regulator to make a plan that sets out the descriptions of registered providers to be subject to regular inspections. These measures again meet the threshold of strengthening tenants' rights, and so, it again strengthens the case for consent to be granted. The Welsh Government disagrees, however, with the UK Government on whether consent is required for five of these clauses.

Of course, the legal considerations as to where exactly the line falls between reserved and devolved areas isn't always black and white. Increased devolution over the last 25 years has naturally increased some complexity. However, seeing as the Welsh Government recommends that consent be granted anyway, I think it's very important that we remember the people that this legislation is designed to help, and they are vulnerable tenants in need. For the sake of these people, we cannot have a situation where inter-governmental disagreements take precedence over practically implementing the framework that these social housing tenants need. So, we will be supporting this motion. Diolch yn fawr iawn.