<p>Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 15 February 2017.

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Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 1:48, 15 February 2017

Diolch, Lywydd. Minister, one of the traditional functions of local councils is in the field of housing. But sometimes excessive regulation can be a block, particularly for smaller house building companies, and some of these regulations relate to great crested newts. Now, the UK Government has brought out a White Paper in which they propose a newt-offsetting scheme. This would allow developers to build on sites containing newt ponds as long as they paid for good newt habitats to be provided elsewhere, so the newts, as a species, should continue to thrive. I wondered if you thought local councils in Wales might be able to better address the housing shortage if such a scheme were introduced here.