A FLAGSHIP Welsh Government scheme aimed at tackling fuel poverty would take about 125 years to support every low-income household at the current rate, the Senedd heard.

Mark Isherwood, the Conservatives’ shadow housing secretary, warned the Warm Homes Nest programme has insufficient funding to address the scale of fuel poverty.

Pointing to an urgent need to improve the energy efficiency of fuel-poor households, he told the Senedd that the scheme supports about 1,600 homes a year.

He said: “At the current rate… it will take well over a century to improve the energy efficiency of the homes of all our lower income households currently estimated to be in fuel poverty.

Mr Isherwood, who represents North Wales, urged Welsh ministers to allocate an estimated £170m from UK Government spending on warm homes for the same purpose in Wales.

Siân Gwenllian, his Plaid Cymru counterpart, echoed concerns about the pace of change, with more than 200,000 households estimated to be living in fuel poverty.

The Arfon Senedd member warned of a lack of clarity on the policy objective, with the Warm Homes programme “somehow” seeking to balance net zero and fuel poverty.

Ms Gwenllian said: “In some cases, both things could go hand in hand. But it can also lead to conflict when you’re trying to achieve two policy objectives within a single programme.”

She pointed to the example of uncertainty around the boiler repair scheme beyond March.

Her Plaid Cymru colleague Llŷr Gruffydd said investment is “woefully short” of what’s required, with Wales having the least energy-efficient housing in western Europe.

The North Wales politician told the Senedd: “While there are good things happening, they’re not happening at the pace or the scale required to make an impact.”

Sioned Williams raised concerns about the Welsh Government’s “out-dated” fuel poverty estimates which pre-date the energy and cost-of-living crisis.

“That survey is meant to be updated every five years but here we are, eight years on, approaching nine, with no update and no sign of one,” said the Plaid Cymru MS.

Raising the example of a couple in their late 70s who live off grid in his Newport East constituency, John Griffiths called for support to be tailored to people’s circumstances.

Jenny Rathbone, a fellow Labour backbencher, said: “In the main two postcodes for my constituency, CF23 and 24, 2019 and 2021 were the bumper years for retrofits.

“But we’re talking 105 and 103 in each of these years, which is obviously very welcome for those homes but a drop in the sea compared with the huge need there is in the private sector, which is where all the coldest homes now are.”

In a statement to the Senedd on January 14, Jayne Bryant set out Welsh Government action aimed at making homes warmer and lowering bills while tackling the climate emergency.

The housing secretary, who was appointed in July, said the Welsh Government has invested more than £30m in the revamped Warm Homes Nest scheme.

Ms Bryant, who is also responsible for councils, said: “We’re tackling fuel poverty through a two-pronged strategy: providing expert advice to Welsh households while delivering physical improvements to our least energy efficient homes, which cost more to heat.

“Our renewed programme, launched in April, is already making a real difference.”

Ms Bryant encouraged anybody worried about their energy bill or heating their home to call the scheme’s freephone number, 0808 808 2244.

SENIOR Pembrokeshire councillors have backed a near-£12m ‘levelling up’ project to rejuvenate parts of Pembroke, with £1.2m of council funds.

At the January 13 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet members backed the signing of a memorandum of understanding for a UK Government Levelling Up Fund 3 award for the £11,715,141 Pembroke town Westgate to Eastgate project.

The project attracted a grant award of £10,543,627, with a commitment of £1,171,514 match-funding from the council to comply with the grant offer requirements, some 10 per cent.

Applications for ‘levelling-up’ funding for this part of Pembroke have a history going back several years, with a June 2022 bid for the second round of levelling up funding unsuccessful; a third-round bid based on an amended version of that scheme getting the thumbs-up last year.

The project delivery period is planned to run from April 2025 until March 2028, consisting of three works packages, Cabinet members heard in a presentation by Deputy Leader Cllr Paul Miller.

The three planned works packages consist of, firstly, connecting The Commons to Westgate and Main Street, including an improved pedestrian connection into the town centre running from Common Road, via the Parade to Long Entry and exiting onto Westgate Hill and public realm improvements, improved lighting and public art.

The second package, Eastgate, is described as “both the principal investment and the critical path to the overall programme,” with the works seeing “selective demolition and making good to the elements of the school building, which encroach, onto [a] projected highway corridor, and for construction new retaining walls as necessary,” along with “An enabling contract to ready East End School for development to shell and core, readied for development for currently undetermined use”.

The third work  package, ‘Connecting Townscape, Landscape and Soundscape’ includes: “Pembroke’s network of public realm and green infrastructure will be enhanced along Main Street and connect through underused route ways to its flanking green space of The Commons and the Upper and Lower Mill Pond”.

Cllr Miller warned that inflationary pressures since the original proposal would lead to some adaptions to the scheme, the value of the funding being less than it was in 2022.

Seconding Cllr Miller’s proposal the scheme be backed, Leader Cllr Jon Harvey, county councillor for the Pembroke St Mary North ward, said: “I’m extremely pleased about the levelling-up money coming into this town; Pembroke is a wonderful town, but it is underperforming, with businesses struggling.”

He stressed a need for collaborative work on the project: “Community ‘buy-in’ is very important, we need to work closely with the community and the town.”

Members backed a recommendation to approve the scheme and the match-funding element, along with the signing of the memorandum.

THE NUMBER of children waiting for an autism or ADHD assessment in Wales could nearly triple to 61,000 over the next two years, a committee heard.

Sarah Murphy, Wales’ mental health minister, told the Senedd’s children’s committee that 20,770 children were waiting for a neurodevelopmental assessment in September 2024.

She said: “The assessment we’ve got from the NHS Executive is that we’re going to see, by March 2027, between 41,000 to 61,000 people waiting for these assessments.”

By comparison, according to freedom of information (FoI) requests, around 4,100 children were awaiting an ADHD or autism assessment in September 2021.

Giving evidence on January 9, Ms Murphy, who is responsible for neurodevelopmental conditions, learning disability, and dementia, pointed to an extra £3m for health boards.

Ms Murphy said: “It will benefit the children and young people who have been waiting the longest and the money then is dependent on the delivery.”

Quizzed by Vaughan Gething, the former First Minister who first brought her into government in May, she suggested the surge in demand was down to increasing awareness.

She added: “That assessment means a lot to children, young people and their families. I was speaking to the National Autistic Society yesterday and they said ‘we’ve raised so much awareness but now we need to ride that wave towards understanding and acceptance’.”

The Conservatives’ Joel James was alarmed to hear waiting lists could almost triple in two years, asking how ministers will intervene to ensure sustainable services.

Ms Murphy replied: “We’ve done a national accelerated design event which was really good. It was over a couple of days: it brought together … everybody who has a part to play in this.

“Because we all recognise that this cannot continue – we have to change.”

Asked whether health boards could expect more funding to drive down waiting lists in future, she said: “No. To be very clear, the £3m is one-off funding.”

Ms Murphy explained health boards are bringing in additional capacity from the private sector in an effort to meet demand but cautioned that this is unsustainable.

The Welsh Government has a target of 80% of children and young people receiving an assessment in 26 weeks, twice as long as the 13 weeks recommended by NICE guidelines.

Yet, while data on waiting times is not routinely published unlike in England, it is thought the 80% target has not been met Wales-wide since it was introduced nearly a decade ago.

Welsh ministers have no corresponding target for adult assessments.

Sixty-seven per cent of children waited at least 26 weeks and 45% waited for more than a year in June 2023, according to the response to another FoI request.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Betsi Cadwaladr university health boards currently warn of waiting lists of two and three years, respectively.

Albert Heaney, the chief social care officer for Wales, said health boards are confident an extra 2,000 assessments will be delivered by the end of March.

He said: “Importantly, the money is on condition that they are delivered. It’s coming the other way around on this occasion … it’s not money that’s given out, the money is on delivery.”

Mr Heaney added: “I’m really pleased that there’s a lot of co-production, there’s lived experience, there’s a real energy around this because I think there’s recognition … that it can’t just be about focusing on assessment.”