Conduct Of Wales And West Housing Association Ltd

EDM number 1032 in 1999-00, proposed by Alan Williams on 26/07/2000.

That this House notes with extreme concern that, after eight years of denying its obligations to the house-owners on its Cefn Celyn development in Swansea, it took the imminence of a court case which raised the possibility of being in contempt of court, to extract from Wales and West Housing Association (WWHA) documentation showing that they had had on record since November 1988 information 'that the Association had been aware of problems with retaining walls'; is concerned that they failed to reveal this years earlier despite the involvement of solicitors for the house owners, representations from and a meeting with the Right honourable Member for Swansea West in 1991, and inquiries from the Secretary of State for Wales in 1992; observes that with less persistence by the affected residents the truth might never have been revealed, the owners would have suffered legal and improper restoration costs for the wall, and WWHA would have escaped a significant part of the cost of meeting its obligations; regards with cynicism and little surprise that WWHA's internal investigation 'found that the misrepresentation had been the result of poor communication between officers of the Association and found no evidence to suggest that staff had knowingly suppressed relevant documentation at arbitration'; and calls upon the Secretary for Housing and Local Government at the National Assembly for Wales to institute a comprehensive investigation into this case.

This motion has been signed by a total of 7 MPs.