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.