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.