6 October 2026 , Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I'm a Swansea City Association Football Club supporter and I remember the effect that playing in the premiership, winning the league cup and qualifying in Europe had on the image of Swansea. I drove down Mumbles Road one Saturday morning and a huge crowd of…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Motion under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting and from the whole of the meeting on 8 October
Content.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
Okay. Thank you.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
How do we get like the rest of western Europe and North America? I mean, in areas like New York, co-operative housing is popular. The Dakota building, where John Lennon lived—. There certainly weren't only poor people living in those type of houses. You've…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
Perhaps I should say I'm a member of the Co-operative Party, and I've written quite extensively on co-operative housing in terms of pamphlets and articles. The Welsh Government, I would say, following my continual pressure on co-operative housing or out of…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
I agree with you, and we just need a community right to buy.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
I'll finish with this—it's the last thing. There are lots of chapels and lots of pubs, not only in town centre areas, that have been a lifestyle choice by people. Chapels have far fewer people going to them now, pubs have far fewer people going to them now…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
I will just mention my experience. There's an empty home not too far from where I live. It's empty because it has been inherited by two siblings, and one doesn't want the other one to get any money.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
More often than that, there are all sorts of reasons, from people getting planning permission to make changes, or it used to be one house and it's now been made two houses, and although it's showing as a property, it actually was part of the first property…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
I think it's probably more significant than what you're telling us.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 3
We've dealt with the 'what', haven't we, although we might not agree exactly how many there are. But then there's the 'why'. I think Chris mentioned earlier that people are in hospital or in nursing homes long term, and they would say they still lived at that…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scrutiny of the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning on the Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Electoral Reform) (Wales) Regulations 2026
And finally from me: some women, when they get married, change their name to their husband's surname. That's their decision; I'm not going to say whether it's right or wrong, but some people do that. You may have two of somebody there, especially if they got…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scrutiny of the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning on the Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Electoral Reform) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Take me, for example—and I'm going to move on to more complicated ones afterwards—I'm known as Mike Hedges, Michael Hedges and Michael John Hedges in different places. But it's also more complicated in some families, where first names and surnames run down…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scrutiny of the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning on the Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Electoral Reform) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I want to ask you about data. I'll be briefer than I really want to be. Are there any legislative barriers that prevent access to national data like national insurance numbers? Actually finding people can be incredibly difficult. The ability to have data out…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
I can only speak on Morriston, where I live, in great detail, and Swansea in much less detail, but there are chapels all over the place. The one thing that south Wales has got, and I'm sure north Wales as well, is lots of chapels. Their congregations have…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
I was going to raise that you must all have pubs and you must all have chapels that used to be very popular but have now gone into disuse and are in various stages of dereliction. I think everyone else in the room recognises those. Have you any experience of…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
Well, there are actually cases of this.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
My question is that we were told earlier there is no difficulty in enforcing against somebody living in prison: do you find that there's no problem enforcing against somebody living in prison? Are there any problems enforcing against somebody who lives abroad…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
Okay, thank you.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
I did mention the two previous things of the carrot of, 'You can have grant funding for renovation', and the stick of, 'You've got to pay additional council tax, if you don't bring it back into use.' Have those worked at all? Somebody else can answer, if you…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
We had the carrot of grant money, didn't we, for people who wanted to do work on a house to bring it back into use. We had the stick of having higher rates of council tax able to be charged. And then we had the big stick of compulsory purchase orders. Have…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Danbert House, which is a very big building in Morriston and which has been derelict for about 20 years, the council have only taken it on every time they've had to do safety work and, having done the safety work, they can then sell it in order to recoup the…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Quite simply, enforcement is wonderful. How do you enforce against somebody in prison? How do you enforce against somebody who's moved abroad, and how do you enforce when, having started the enforcement action, they then transfer the property to someone else?…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Well, a court will decide that.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
As a fellow Member for the area will know, that is not a recent one; that goes back well over a decade.
