Mike Hedges MS welcomes new support package for unpaid carers

 Mike Hedges MS welcomes new support package for unpaid carers 

  

Welsh Labour’s Member of the Senedd for Swansea East, Mike Hedges MS, has welcomed a new £7m package of support for unpaid carers, in recognition of the vital support they provide to the people they care for. 

  

The new support package will:  

• Allocate £5.5 million to local authorities to provide targeted support to unpaid carers; 

• £1.25m for the Carers Support Fund - last year, this fund successfully helped almost 6500 unpaid carers to cope with the financial impact of Covid 19; 

• £20,000 to fund online mental wellbeing support sessions; and  

• £230,000 for the Family Fund to support over 600 further low-income families with seriously ill or disabled children. 

  

The Welsh Government previously committed £3 million in 2021-22 to allow more carers to take a break from their caring role, bringing the total additional funding support for unpaid carers this year to £10 million. 

  

Welcoming the fund,  Mike Hedges MS said: 

  

“The funding announced today shows how much the Welsh Labour Government appreciates and values the army of unpaid carers in Wales who have gone above and beyond to care for family or friends. 

  

“The physical and emotional impact of caring can be overwhelming – it’s vital that we continue to help and support our unpaid carers with the emotional and financial impact of COVID-19.” 

  

ENDS 

  

Notes to editors: 

  

Examples of how the previous funding has been spent to date include: 

• £5,000 to fund the creation of a Respitality scheme in Gwynedd to work with the holiday sector to offer cheaper holidays to unpaid carers; 

• £10,000 to fund the remodelling of day care for older people in Gwynedd which includes paying for flexible short care packages for carers and the individuals they support; 

• £20,000 to fund a 6 week programme of wellbeing counselling to help support carers with personal stresses and anxieties in Conwy; 

• £40,000 to fund Carers’ Outreach in Conwy to provide breaks, days out, weekends away in Conwy for carers over 18; and 

• £32,000 to run a pilot scheme for parent carers to choose practical support which meets their needs in Swansea. 

 

 

MIKE HEDGES WELCOMES GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON 2ND HOMES

MIKE HEDGES WELCOMES GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON 2ND HOMES  

Speaking from the Senedd, Local Swansea East MS Mike Hedges said… ‘ I welcome the position of the Welsh Government on 2nd homes. I find it morally wrong that some people can have large 2nd homes which are used for holidays and weekends when there are a lot of people living in poor quality and over crowded houses. I have long called for the large scale building of council houses and for the removal of housing from small business rate relief. I am pleased that the Minister supports the building of council houses and is supportive of the removal of rate relief. Everyone deserves a good home – a good home is key to good health and a good start in life for our young children. I am pleased to support a government committed to those principles’ 

 

Mike Hedges MS16:23:59 

 

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I very much welcome the statement by the Minister. If we had a surfeit of housing, then second home ownership would not be a problem, but unfortunately, we have a shortage of accommodation across Wales and in certain parts of Wales, a massive shortage. I find it morally wrong that some people have two or more houses and others are either homeless, living in very poor quality housing or living in accommodation that is totally inadequate for the numbers living in it.256 

Does the Minister agree that the large-scale building of council housing has to be part of any housing solution? We know that the only time we had house building and demand in equilibrium was during the time that large-scale council housing was built in the 1950s and 1960s.257 

Short-term holiday lets is a growing problem, even in Swansea East. I will again ask that properties for short-term rent are controlled via the planning system; it just happens and it causes huge problems to the neighbours. I agree that the testing of something in one area is a brilliant idea, and I hope that other Ministers will learn from that so that we can test things before we implement them across the whole of Wales.258 

Finally, can I again ask that housing is excluded from small business rate relief? That is one of the things that distorts the market, and allows people to make lots of money by not paying any council tax and not paying any small business rates. I think we need to make sure that housing is for people, not for profit.259 

 16:25 

 

Julie James MS16:25:31 

  

Thank you, Mike. I completely agree with you about the large-scale social house building. That's why we've got the 20,000 social homes for rent in this Senedd term. Councils have only recently, of course, been removed from the Conservative cap on the housing revenue accounts, and they've done remarkable things since then in stepping up their house building, having to reconstitute much of their skills and talent base that they'd lost in the 40 years since Thatcher took the right away from them. I'm really pleased with the success that they've had in doing that, and we are certainly working with the 11 stock-holding councils to ramp that up right across Wales in conjunction with registered social landlord partners as well.260 

In terms of the short-term rents, one of the things that we are very determined to do is implement the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. The renting homes Act changes the relationship between landlords and tenants and will really help in the short-term rental section. It will give landlords certainty of income and better tools to make sure that their good tenants stay in place. And it will give tenants better tools to use against the rogue landlords that we have very few of in Wales, but where we do encounter them, we do need to deal with it. I'm very pleased that we will be able to do that, and we're on course to implement that as we go.261 

Of course, the business rate exemption point is part of the consultation that is now complete. We are just analysing the 1,000-odd responses that we got from that, and we'll be able to come back to the Senedd with the outcome of that as soon as we've been able to analyse those responses.