Joe Allen

Two issues here. One on procedural fairness and the other, more substantive, on social housing allocations. Are Reform unfairly targeted in the Senedd? A quick look at the data suggests the answer is probably not. The Llywydd (or Dep) has intervened ~20 times this term to hurry a speaker up. Plaid MSs appear to have the most interventions & then Reform. Obviously plenty of ways that there could still be unfairness (other people given more leeway etc) but it's not immediately clear that Reform are being picked on. The second issue is the data on social housing allocations to foreign nationals that @FrancescaOBMS is citing based on an FOI - e.g. suggestion 30% of recorded housing allocations in Cardiff last year went to non-British nationals; 35% of temp accommodation list. (Health warning on the data is that recording of nationality is seemingly patchy). The exchange was a messy one: it went over time and was intervened on. The Minister's (@siangwenfelin) response was that this is not an acceptable topic for discussion (see below). Similarly the @NationCymru reporting of the incident does not report the FOI data for Cardiff at all and states that there is no relationship between immigration and housing shortages. Annual international migration into Wales post-Covid went from a decades long average of about 5k per year to 22k+ per year between 2021 and 2024. It's now back down to the long-term average. The idea that this boom had no impact on housing in Wales is not really credible. But equally importantly I don't think the knee-jerk liberal response of no permitted discussion on this aspect of allocations is helpful to anyone.

A Reform Senedd Member has claimed she was unfairly penalised after the Deputy Llywydd reprimanded her for ignoring several prompts to ask her question after exceeding her allotted speaking time ✍️Emily Price nation.cymru/news/reform-ms…

Two issues here. One on procedural fairness and the other, more substantive, on social housing allocations. Are Reform unfairly targeted in the Senedd? A quick look at the data suggests the answer is probably not. The Llywydd (or Dep) has intervened ~20 times this term to hurry a speaker up. Plaid MSs appear to have the most interventions & then Reform. Obviously plenty of ways that there could still be unfairness (other people given more leeway etc) but it's not immediately clear that Reform are being picked on. The second issue is the data on social housing allocations to foreign nationals that @FrancescaOBMS is citing based on an FOI - e.g. suggestion 30% of recorded housing allocations in Cardiff last year went to non-British nationals; 35% of temp accommodation list. (Health warning on the data is that recording of nationality is seemingly patchy). The exchange was a messy one: it went over time and was intervened on. The Minister's (@siangwenfelin) response was that this is not an acceptable topic for discussion (see below). Similarly the @NationCymru reporting of the incident does not report the FOI data for Cardiff at all and states that there is no relationship between immigration and housing shortages. Annual international migration into Wales post-Covid went from a decades long average of about 5k per year to 22k+ per year between 2021 and 2024. It's now back down to the long-term average. The idea that this boom had no impact on housing in Wales is not really credible. But equally importantly I don't think the knee-jerk liberal response of no permitted discussion on this aspect of allocations is helpful to anyone.