On 11th November, the Senedd Local Government and Housing Committee voted on amendments to the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill, completing stage 2 of the legislative process.
Following unanimous support in the Senedd on 4th November for the general principles of the Bill, members of the committee scrutinised the legislation in more detail, and then tabled and voted on amendments. Cymorth Cymru worked closely with Crisis and Shelter Cymru to develop a series of proposals to strengthen the Bill, with several of these being put forward by committee members for consideration. The Welsh Government also proposed a series of amendments, some of which were in response to evidence from stakeholders during stage 1 of the legislative process.
Successful amendments included:
- Section 17 – Provides local housing authorities with a discretionary power to continue offering assistance beyond the 12- month period after the statutory duty has ended.
- Section 20 – Enables the Welsh Ministers to use regulations in future to impose the duty to cooperate on additional reserved bodies, or modify how it applies to them, with the consent of, or consultation with, the relevant
Secretary of State - Section 31 – Enables the Welsh Ministers to use regulations in future to impose the duty to ask and act on additional reserved bodies, or modify how it applies to them, with the consent of, or consultation with, the relevant
Secretary of State - Section 32 – A commitment to provide guidance before enacting the section on cooperation between social landlords and local authorities
- Now deleted – Removes the section that would enable local authorities to determine qualifying persons for the allocation of social housing
- Section 35 – This amendment provides that where an applicant is found to have deliberately manipulated the system to gain enhanced priority for social housing due to homelessness, only the reasonable preference due to homelessness will be lost.
- Section 37 – Clarification about the type of housing (social housing) that would be part of common housing registers, enabling social landlords to provide other types of housing other than social housing.
- Section 38 – A duty on Ministers to carry out a review about the operation and effect of changes made by the legislation within four years of it coming into force
- Section 43: Requirement for Ministers to report to the Senedd about the progress made in impelementing the legislation
You can find out more via the following links:
- Local Government and Housing Committee (11 December) – video, minutes, transcript
- Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill – as amended at stage 2
Next steps
The legislative process now moves to stage 3, which provides a further opportunity for amendments to be considered. These will be debated and voted on by all Members of the Senedd, rather than just the members of the Local Government and Housing Committee.
