I now move to the short debate, and I call on Mike Hedges to speak on the topic he has chosen ‘Meeting Wales’s Housing Need: Further Action Needed to Increase Housing Supply’. Mike Hedges.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I have given a minute in this debate—[Interruption.]

Quiet please, I’m sorry.

I have given a minute in this debate to Jeremy Miles. I welcome this opportunity to raise a subject that I believe to be vital to the future of people in Wales. Housing, or the lack of it, is perhaps the greatest challenge facing this Assembly, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss it so early in this term. It’s certainly a major issue in my constituency, not just people who can’t get houses, but the poor quality of some of the privately rented properties that people are living in.

The post-war period in terms of housing can be broken down into two periods. From 1945 to 1980, we saw a huge growth in council housing—and some of us were lucky enough to be brought up in one—and the building of a large number of new estates, especially in the larger urban areas. We also saw the growth of owner-occupation and the start of the building of large private estates, again predominantly in the larger urban areas. Since 1980, there has been a large increase in empty properties. There are currently 22,000 in Wales. There has been change in housing tenure, increase in the number of single-person households, increase in pensioner households and an increase in young people in houses in multiple occupation, which used to be only students. I remember when HMO equalled student housing. Much more now, it equals a lot of other young people, and older people who end up in houses in multiple occupation, not out of choice, but out of necessity. We’ve seen the growth of housing associations, and a return to a large private rented sector.

I aim to show, amongst other things, that a third model of housing, the housing co-operative model, should also play a part in the future housing provision within Wales. I wish to highlight the positive impact of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and the housing progress already made by this Welsh Labour Government. The housing Act was a major piece of social legislation, but I am sure of two things: the Act has not met the hopes and aspirations of everyone and there will be more housing Bills. The Act provides a framework for regulating landlords, where tenants can have assurances that their landlord will be obliged by law to provide good-quality housing and respond to repair needs. It also provides remedies for redress if these standards are not met. And I’m sure most people in this room have had their constituents coming to them, who are living in houses that they just cannot get repaired. The fact that it’s got water coming in and is not windproof is not a reason, as far as some landlords think, to actually do a repair to them—‘Give me the rent and if you don’t like it, in six months’ time, when your contract is up, I’ll move you out, and somebody else, more desperate than you, will actually end up moving in.’ And I’ve been in houses—I’m sure other people have here—where I can actually put my finger between the windowsill and the window pane—there were gaps. And central heating is something that many people in privately rented accommodation have heard of, but don’t actually have any access to.

The Act also outlines the key role of local authorities in, wherever possible, preventing homelessness, thus making Wales the first of the UK nations to turn this principle into a legal requirement. It’s a tremendous movement because, far too often, local authorities would have somebody coming along and saying, ‘I’m on three months’ notice and I’m going to be put out on the street by my landlord’, or ‘I’m on one months’ notice.’ And what actually happened was that the council would say, ‘Come back when the notice is coming to an end’ rather than trying to keep them in some form of accommodation. Local authorities need to provide new Gypsy and Traveller sites where a need has been identified. So, tremendous progress has been made, and I think it would be wrong, talking about housing, not to mention the progress that’s been made in the last Assembly term.

If I move on to housing co-operatives, which I’m very keen on, the legislation intended to further facilitate the development of co-operative housing by allowing fully mutual housing co-operatives to grant assured tenancies, thus protecting the interest of lenders. In some European countries, co-operatives make up 20 per cent of all housing, but it’s 0.1 per cent in Britain. Though, in some places, such as Liverpool, they have had a history of housing co-operatives. With such a shortage of housing in Wales, I don’t believe we can let the potential of providing accommodation via the co-operative model be virtually unused. We’ve been dominated by the two types, haven’t we? Rented housing or housing bought on a mortgage and then becoming owner-occupied. And the rented are either in private or council or from a social landlord. Can I just say how disappointed I am, when the Tories brought in the right to buy, that that ended the building of council houses? That really did cause a huge problem to a large number of people. I believe in council housing. From the age of six to the age of 25, I lived in a council house. They provided good-quality housing for many of us who originally lived in privately rented accommodation where the kitchen was a lean-to. I can actually say that I’m probably one of the few people who actually lived in a house that didn’t have a bath and we actually used a tin bath. [Interruption.] Sorry, Leanne Wood and I lived in houses like that—and John Griffiths. [Interruption.] [Laughter.] T

Things have moved on with council quality of accommodation. I remember the large-scale slum clearance that led to large council estates being built and good-quality houses. The term ‘Parker Morris’ meant something to many of us. It meant quality. It meant that councils built houses of the highest standard and I’m really pleased to see councils like Swansea and Carmarthenshire looking to build housing again. But it can only work if the right to buy is suspended and ended, because what happens is, you build a house and somebody moves in who’s lived in council housing for a number of years and they then exercise the right to buy and all of a sudden you lose half the value, or 40 per cent of the value, of the house. It’s just not possible—much more than the legislation stopping you building council houses, councils can always build council houses if only by using the value of land they sold in order to build them. But if you build 10 houses at £100,000, if you gave £40,000 off each house in terms of discount, then you’re losing £400,000 when the 10 get sold. There is no logic, economically, to build them. With the right to buy suspended, councils can use land values in order to start building again, and there’s a huge demand for council housing. Most us who represent areas that are less affluent than others are really well aware of the needs of people we meet who are desperate to move out of very poor-quality privately rented accommodation into council housing.

Returning to housing co-operatives, these really do work. They work all over the world, or, I should actually say, they work all over the world apart from Britain. If countries such as Sweden, Norway, Canada, Austria, Turkey—. Sweden has two large co-operative organisations that provide over 750,000 homes. About 18 per cent of the population of that country live in co-operative housing. For those people who watch American television, you’ll hear the term ‘co-op’ mentioned when they talk about people living in New York. Some of these are meant to be some of the richest people and they live in co-operative housing. But there are more co-operative housing homes in Vancouver than in the whole of the UK. It’s believed that less than 1 per cent of people in the UK live in co-operative housing and I would guess it’s probably nearer 0.1 per cent than 1 per cent.

The idea of introducing and developing housing co-operatives in the UK is not a new one, and it’s cross-party as well. The Conservatives under John Major looked at it. The Conservatives produced a report in 1995, ‘Tenants in Control: An Evaluation of Tenant-Led Housing Management Organisations’, which, to the astonishment of many, concluded that co-operative housing models not only were cost-effective but also provided their members with a number of significant benefits. There have been subsequent reports and investigations into housing co-operative models. PwC had an investigation into it. In fact, this is Britain at its best, isn’t it? We have lots of investigations, lots of reports; they haven’t had a group yet of experts looking into it, but I’m sure that that will come along somewhere. It’s the action at the end of it we seem to have a huge problem with. I think it really is important that we do try and develop this as a model. We all know there’s a huge housing need. We know there’s a housing need in Britain. We know there’s a housing need in Wales. And, can I say, on a parochial note, I know there’s a housing need in Swansea East?

For instance, being part of a housing co-operative gives members the opportunity to use existing skills or develop new skills. They provide members with a stake and a vested interest in where they live and can reduce any dependency tenants have on landlords or the state. In terms of social benefit, housing co-operatives can help promote community cohesion and integration and play a role in reducing vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

The law to establish and promote a legally separate co-operative housing tenure is now feasible. Three things will need to be done in order for it to be successful. Firstly, there needs to be a change in the law to make the creation of housing co-operatives easier. Secondly, lenders need to be convinced of the security of their lending that may entail a Welsh Government underwrite. Thirdly, it needs to be publicised and people need to be enthused into creating and joining them. None of these is insurmountable with the political will to achieve it. As I’ve only got 15 minutes, can I rapidly run through what are the further developments I want to see in housing in Wales?

Ten points for better Housing in Wales: first, I believe, most importantly, is the suspension of the right to buy and the building of new houses and flats by councils. The provision of social housing built and run by councils is, I believe, the most efficient and cost-effective and beneficial way of providing much needed housing. The second development I would like to see is the substantial growth of co-operative housing. We know it works across large parts of the world. We need the legislation to make sure it works in Wales as well.

Third, while major progress has been made in relation to privately rented properties there is a desperate need, especially in the major conurbations, to introduce rent capping. I don’t see anyone from Cardiff here because I’m sure they would be jumping up and down in agreement on that because Cardiff suffers more than anywhere else in Wales. The very high private sector rents are one of the major causes of the escalation of the welfare bill. Instead of cutting benefits, I believe we need to limit the rents being charged.

Fourth, the housing Act partially tackles this—privately rented houses should be of a reasonable standard and safe to live in. I’ve been for a long time, with other colleagues, pushing for electrical safety to be brought in to deal with this.

Fifth, local authorities should build houses for sale and use the profits from the sale to support the housing revenue account. Sixth, secure tenancies should be the default renting option not these six-month tenancies. The number of people who move round a place called Plasmarl, where I was born, and they spend six months in one street and they move, at the end of that time, to live six months in the street behind it, and they just move around these terraces.

Seventh, predictable rent rises in line with inflation unless there has been a substantial improvement in the building. Eighth, there needs to be a ban on letting agent fees as fees are a business cost and they ought to be paid by the business not by the people seeking housing.

Ninth, ensure that privately rented properties are routinely inspected by environmental health officers to ensure that they are up to standard. Tenth, tenants should not be subjected to unreasonable rules, some of which are there to make it easier to evict them.

Finally, can I just pay compliment to the Welsh Labour Government in the last term, who made substantial progress in housing legislation? A lot’s been done but there’s still a lot more to do. Thank you.

I just want to use the minute that I think I have to draw the attention of the Chamber to an evaluation of co-operative housing developments in Wales, which was published at the end of March. It looked specifically at the early developmental stages in co-op housing, echoing what Mike has said, and I’ll use my time to continue to plead the cause of co-op housing. It looks also at the question of the specific impact that Welsh Government funding has had. It looked both at citizen-led and RSL-led projects. It looks at some of the downsides, struggling to acquire land for development is one of them and access to finance is another, but it notes, in general, the several substantive upsides to co-operative housing schemes, in particular the good quality of construction around design but also with regard to energy efficiency and a number of them have been developed with sustainable development principles at their heart.

Many of the tenants entering into these arrangements have felt that they were likely to end up with longer-term tenancies as a result, and often the motivation for them was to avoid having to deal with bad landlords and the increased control, which many tenants felt they would have as a consequence of being part of these co-op developments, was another key motivator. So, there’s some interesting material in there, specifically in relation to Welsh co-op housing in particular.

In the recommendations made in the report, the first key recommendation is a request that the Welsh Government signals its continued support for development, in particular around RSL-led schemes, which they believe will be the future growth potential in the sector, and also the importance of raising awareness of the co-op option for housing generally. One of the particular recommendations is consideration of a matching scheme between citizens who might want to participate in co-op housing schemes and RSLs able to facilitate that. So, that was just to draw attention to that report. It’s an important contribution to the co-op housing debate more broadly, and I think that co-op housing in particular can help us both tackle our housing strategy and also contribute to making our communities as robust as they can be. Thank you.

Thank you, and I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children to reply to the debate. Carl Sargeant.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank Mike Hedges for bringing this short debate on meeting Wales’s housing need to the Chamber today.

My vision for housing is quite simple: I want people to have access to a decent, affordable home that improves their lives. To achieve this, we are taking a comprehensive approach, grounded in new and innovative ways of helping the people of Wales meet their housing needs. Mike has much to offer in his 10-point plan and I’ll be asking my team to make sure that we take note of his contribution today.

We are providing significant levels of investment through our grant and new loan programmes to increase housing supply and standards across all tenures. We need to retain our existing stock of affordable housing and give social landlords the confidence to invest in building new homes. The First Minister has confirmed that a Bill to end the right to buy and associated rights will be included in the first year of the legislative programme of this Government.

With demand exceeding supply, our proposals will protect the social housing stock from further erosion and allow it to grow. It’s an important safety net for those who cannot acquire a home through the housing market and who depend upon social housing. There is emerging evidence that many former right-to-buy properties end up in the private rented sector, costing much more in housing benefit. This is an extra drain on public finances, when budgets are under considerable pressure.

Can I pay tribute to councils already? Our councils are now able to build again, following the successful exit from the housing revenue account subsidy system. This is already having an impact in Cardiff, in Swansea and in Flintshire—my own authority—forecasting that, together, they will build over 800 new council properties.

These authorities currently fund the development of new council homes out of their own resources. However, we are now developing the second phase of our housing finance grant, which is designed to be accessed by councils as well as housing associations. Preparing for this second phase is well under way. Our intention is that it will run from 2017.

For this term of Government, we have committed to an ambitious target of 20,000 additional affordable homes, and social housing will have a key role to play in meeting this. To reinforce this agenda and to support those affected by the UK Government’s welfare reforms, we have made available £68 million for social housing grants in 2016-17.

We are committed to greater innovation in our housing and this includes a range of new co-operative housing initiatives, led by housing associations across Wales. I listened to Jeremy’s contribution and to Mike’s and noted their passion for us to pursue more co-operative schemes across Wales. There are now 10 pioneer co-operative schemes that are in the process of delivering co-operative housing in Wales—not on the scale that the Member raised around Vancouver and other parts of the world, but we are starting on the journey and these have a potential to create more empowered communities, compared to the traditional landlord-tenant agreement.

Market housing will, of course, play a vital part in meeting the diverse needs for homes and the delivery of affordable solutions. So, we’ve made encouraging progress in building more homes over the last five years. But I don’t underestimate the challenge of continuing that trend over the next five years. To provide further support to those who wish to own their own home, we’ve introduced a second phase of Help to Buy—Wales and this will invest an additional £290 million up to 2021, supporting the construction of up to 6,000 new homes and making home ownership achievable for the thousands of families who wish for that to happen. Help to Buy—Wales is providing solid foundations, but we will need to do more.

We continue to focus on the need to reduce the number of empty properties. We need to build on the real achievement of bringing over 7,500 empty properties back into use during the course of the last Government, and this is in no small part thanks to the introduction of the innovative Houses into Homes loan scheme. But I am also happy to acknowledge the galvanising effect that the programme had in supporting local action in local areas. The joint working we saw on empty properties is an excellent example of the partnership working between central and local government, and that should be our ambition moving forward.

Deputy Llywydd, we have had great success, and that was recognised by Mike Hedges and colleagues today in what we have delivered under the last term of government, but the challenges facing us following the Brexit campaign will provide more significant financial challenges to Government and the RSLs and sectors out there. But we must continue to find ways to encourage more housing for the people that Mike Hedges and many in this Chamber represent, in order to find affordable, safe, warm homes for those in our communities. We have, hopefully, provided some opportunity during this debate to explain what the Government intends to do, but again I recognise the great opportunities Mike Hedges has presented to us this afternoon. We will continue to consider those made during his contribution. Diolch yn fawr i chi. Thank you.

Thank you very much.