2. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on Welsh Government proposals regarding letting agent fees? OAQ(5)0113(CC)

I thank the Member for his question. I’m very concerned that fees charged by letting agents are placing a disproportionate burden on tenants. I hope to be able to announce shortly how we as a Government propose to respond to this matter.

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response? I, along with several colleagues, most notably Jenny Rathbone, have been opposing letting fees being charged to tenants for several years. Currently, action is being taken in England and has been taken in Scotland. Can the Cabinet Secretary give an indication of the timescale for action being taken?

We are aware Scotland banned these fees some years ago. England will soon be consulting on their proposals. Their experience will help to inform the proposals here in Wales. I don’t have a fixed timeline on this, but I will encourage the Member, again, and, of course, Jenny Rathbone and other Members, if they feel free to submit to the Members’ ballot, it will be supported by the—

Already done.

[Continues.]—Government, if possible.

I, too, would like to wish all the women in the Chamber a happy International Women’s Day. In response to previous calls to ban letting fees at the start of a tenancy, your Government has claimed that renters would end up paying more in the longer term in regard to increased rent. However, since laws surrounding agency fees have been enforced in Scotland, the charity Shelter has stated that there has been no visible increase in rents, and the organisation easyProperty has also stated that, due to competition in the sector, it was unlikely that agencies would pass on charges to landlords. What lessons will you be taking from Scotland in this regard? And I would echo Mike Hedges’s question: when are we going to get this review completed so that we can implement this here in Wales?

Well, that was one of the issues we were concerned about—a transfer of risk to tenants, particularly in fees. We are more content now with the evidence coming from Scotland that that doesn’t appear to be the case. This is a piece of legislation that we’d have to introduce, so that will depend on introduction on the legislative timetable, if and when we’re able to do that.

Cabinet Secretary, can I begin by congratulating you on your resplendent buttonhole? Not only would Lady Rhondda have approved, but I think our former colleague William Graham would have approved. He would have probably conceded that you did better than him in this occasion.

The problem with the current structure is it distorts the market. We need these fees to sit with the responsibility of the landlord. It will be reflected in rents, but landlords would be able to get better value for money for these services and, at the minute, it really acts as the consumer’s disadvantage in having to pay, in effect, for the privilege of buying a service.

I’m grateful for the acknowledgement that, if we were to introduce legislation, the Member may even support it as we move through with the passage of that. Look, Members, I hope to be able to announce shortly how the Government propose to respond to this matter. I will bring that to the Chamber accordingly.

Cabinet Secretary, Wales has been the trailblazer in so many issues, so it’s doubly disappointing that, on the issue of abolishing letting agent fees, we are so far behind the rest of Britain. Letting agency fees make it near impossible for many families to enter the private rented sector and increases the demand for social housing. Cabinet Secretary, there is absolutely no evidence that abolishing fees will push up rents, so when will your Government follow the rest of Britain and abolish these punitive fees?

I refer the Member to my last response.

I’d just like to add my voice on the urgency of this matter. Not only are students being asked to pay £150 to simply take the property off the market while they sort out the tenancy contract, which may never occur, but single people on housing benefits, people who are part of the Supporting People programme on employment support allowance, are having to pay for these fees out of the money they’re supposed to be using for food, because they cannot get housing benefit to cover these fees. So, this is a really, really urgent matter, and I hope I can impress on you that we need to get on with it.

The Member regularly meets me to talk about these very issues. I want to make good law in Wales, Llywydd. I will not be rushed into it. However, I will give it careful consideration on the effectiveness, a tailored approach for the needs in Wales, and that the capability to enforce this is in place. But I will bring a statement back to the Chamber.