Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 7 March 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:42, 7 March 2023

Well, Llywydd, first of all, I join with the leader of the opposition in congratulating those people who continue to campaign on this issue to make sure that the Welsh Government is always aware of developments that they are in touch with and that their views are conveyed to us. And I know that last week's meeting was an opportunity for that to happen, and the Minister will be following that up in her forthcoming meeting with the strategic safety stakeholder group, where these matters can be further debated, and the Minister keeps all those arguments about sections 118 to section 125 under review.

The position, though, is that those regulations—those sections—were specifically written for the building safety regime in England. It is not as simple as simply picking them up and dropping them into the very different Welsh context. And there are some disadvantages for leaseholders who find themselves within that regime, because here in Wales our intention is that leaseholders should not be required to pay for the remedial action that is required to their buildings, whereas those sections expose leaseholders to bills up to £10,000, and we don't intend to do that in Wales. So, while we will continue to keep the position under close review, we're not convinced that a simple drag-and-drop of those sections into the Welsh context would deliver what the campaigners say it would deliver, and we're not convinced that it could not actually act to their detriment.