Reform MS under fire for linking housing crisis to asylum seekers
Emily Price
A Reform MS has been accused of trying to “create divisions” by suggesting that asylum seekers are the reason there is a shortage of social housing in Wales.
During questions to the housing minister on Wednesday (June 17) Gŵyr Abertawe MS Steven Rodaway was told that Wales’ housing crisis “has nothing to do with asylum seekers”.
It came after he asked the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, Siân Gwenllian, whether the Welsh Government’s nation of sanctuary scheme was affecting the number of social homes available in Wales.
Mr Rodaway said: “When setting the target of 20,000 new social homes, what assessment was made of the housing demand arising from the nation of sanctuary programme?
“And if that demand was not included, how can the Government be satisfied that the target is sufficient to meet the needs of people living in Wales?
“Also, given the pressures already facing those on social housing waiting lists, which housing providers were consulted before the target was adopted, and what assessment has been made of the impact that nation of sanctuary commitments will have access to social housing for local Welsh people and Welsh communities?”
The Nation of Sanctuary is a Welsh Government initiative aimed at supporting refugees and asylum seekers living in Wales by helping them integrate into local communities.
As immigration and border policy are reserved to the UK Government, the scheme does not determine who can enter or remain in the country.
Instead, it focuses on providing support to asylum seekers and refugees once they have been settled in Wales.
Asylum seekers cannot access social housing because they do not qualify for local authority housing waiting lists or standard social housing while their claim is being processed.
During this period, the Home Office is responsible for their accommodation, which is usually provided as temporary housing.
Responding to the Reform Senedd Member’s question, Ms Gwenllian asked Mr Rodaway if he had “any idea” how many asylum seekers were living in Wales at present.
The Reform MS did not respond.
Ms Gwenllian continued, saying: “The figure, or the data, isn’t gathered by the Welsh Government as I explained earlier, but the UK Government, the Home Office, does gather that data, and the figure that I have is around 3,400 asylum seekers.
“These are people who are fleeing atrocities and war, things that we in this Chamber can only imagine in terms of the kinds of lives and the kinds of trauma that these people have experienced and are fleeing.
“So, please don’t try and create divisions by discussing housing problems in the same terms as asylum seekers.
“The housing crisis has nothing to do with asylum seekers – I hope that that message is being heard by those who need to hear that message.
“The housing crisis in Wales has nothing to do with asylum seekers, it has nothing to do with refugees.”
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So these racist clowns are already sowing the seeds of hatred and derision in the Senedd. Satan is pleased.
Well, they are his disciples.
Asylum seekers don’t determine housing policy. Funny how all this “anti-elite” rhetoric always boils down to defecating from a great height on those with the least power. And by funny what I mean is thoroughly, depressingly predictable.
Nothing to do with flogging off council houses that started the distortion of house prices. Or Brexit causing costs to build to get out of control. Or the financial crash instigated in the mid 80s by Thatchers bank deregulation. Or greedy landlors sitting on empty properties as they fly up in value so quick the renting out is not worth thhe hassle.Instead its depserate people
So the residents of Swansea need to make a choice? Bowen is mine. As can be seen here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0nlplfg/am-dro-cyfres-10-pennod-4
From 15:50.
Welcome back to Wales Steven Rodaway. Serving in the British Army meant that he was always given priority for social housing in Wales under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, something that does not apply in England, home of the football team he’s currently championing on social media.
Sadly, his mother Dot died recently, so he inherited a house in Pennard on the Gower.
Notice how Reform always highlights the symptoms, never the causes. Gŵyr Abertawe MS Steven Rodaway forgets that his racist party, in its former guise as UKIP, helped create the asylum seeker situation through Brexit. There is also a shortage of social housing in Wales because Thatcher’s government sold off council housing in the 1980s and failed to reinvest the proceeds in new stock. Actions in the past have severe consequences for the future.
Most social housing stock, former council housing in Wales, was actually transferred into the large housing association entities, the largest being RCT homes now called Trevallis, and it was the Labour Party championing this move. These housing association are outside the control of local authorities and have merged to form large corporate cross border organisations, Wales and West being a classic. This allows councils in England to ‘dump’ problem families into Wales from England at a cheaper cost than housing them on their own patch.
https://herald.wales/national-news/west-wales-paedophile-cult-leader-could-be-moved-to-open-prison/
Strange that ReformUK don’t highlight that most rapists and murderers are actually from England.
That would involve a level of honesty. Not gonna happen.
A ddim oherwydd cari-dyms cegog o dros y clawdd?
Nothing to bring to the table but immigracism. No intention of serving the voters who put them there. No clue or want to be proper representatives of the people, only a driving desire to stymie our Parliament for four long years and erode its’ effectiveness in the misguided belief that they can say ‘there you are look it’s failing because the Welsh are too thick to run their non country’. Reformees have the easiest job. They don’t do detail nor figures nor calculations. They, and we, all know that our population is around 3.1 million but they will still say… Read more »
Well said. Zero policies, zero solutions, one wailing mantra and no discernable brains.
Reminds me of the Tories that preceded them. Hopefully, the people of Cymru will see through it all by the next election and they’ll go the same way as the tories did,
I’ve worked in social housing for 24 years. What complete and utter nonsense this clown is spouting.
Reform need to learn a little bit about what the senedd does, or even better, just quit so we can put grown ups in their place.
It’s nothing to do with Asylum seekers, it’s to do with rich English retirees retiring or buying second homes in small local villages across Wales driving up house prices, and a lot of these locals are in deep poverty and struggle to afford lower-end rentals or sometimes buy a relatively cheap basic home on minimum wage if there is a couple, these Reformers have no idea what issues Wales faces.
Ironically they’ve got no idea which “immigrants” are actually the most costly to society.