Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. As I said earlier in a debate today, Welsh Government is absolutely committed to supporting the increase of housing supply. You will recognise we are taking a comprehensive approach with our housing offer, seeking to address the wide range of housing needs, and I thank Mike Hedges for raising that debate today.

I spoke earlier of the significant investment we’re making across many different programmes, and I believe the breadth of offer bears repetition. It includes tried and tested products and programmes, such as the social housing grant and housing finance grant, Help to Buy—Wales, providing an opportunity for home ownership, especially to first-time buyers, the new rent-to-own product, which enables those without a deposit to purchase a home, which we will be launching later in the year, and the innovative housing programme—this will look at new ways of doing things, both in terms of the sorts of homes we build and how we build them—funding the Houses into Homes scheme, which provides another tool to assist local authorities to tackle the problems of empty homes, and confirming our intention to fully protect the social housing stock from reduction by ending the right to buy, and, again, encouraging councils to build again by exiting the housing revenue account subsidy system during the last term of Government. These are just some of the initiatives we’re offering to increase supply.

We don’t build houses as Welsh Government, but our partners do. We’ve got to enable them to be able to do that, and that’s why we’re working with our partners to put a number of collaborative arrangements in place. This includes a housing pact with the WLGA and CHC, the housebuilders engagement programme, including representation from SME businesses, land for housing initiatives, the co-operative housing stakeholder group, and the rural housing strategy group, to name just a few.

I share, Mike, your enthusiasm for co-operative housing. I’ve visited co-operative housing schemes and seen for myself the benefits that the model brings to tenants. And, you’re right, the ownership of the suite of tools in a co-operative housing scheme gives people much more confidence in the ability to do that. We are really pushing hard to give communities that confidence that they need, and it’s been incredibly difficult. I, like you, am perplexed as to why it hasn’t taken off in Wales as it has in other countries. We continue to work hard to do that. Co-operation has a rich history in Wales, however, historically, featured on a large scale in other parts of Europe and America. We want to change this, and, working with you and others who are committed to the co-operative housing scheme, we should hope to gain some momentum.

People can get involved in the governance of the co-operative, taking ownership of the issues that affect their lives, democratically deciding on solutions, and I expect the pilot scheme of £1.9 million of capital funding to help and support the development of three co-operative schemes here in Wales, providing 87 new homes for communities. We recognise the different skills that are needed when requiring the development of co-operatives, and we are working to provide revenue funding with the Wales Co-operative Centre to provide emerging housing co-operatives with support. This community development expertise has been used to support groups, which I’ve seen, as I mentioned earlier on.

Over the last five years, I believe we’ve built a platform for co-operative housing to develop and grow, including legislating to allow mutual housing co-operative grants assured and assured shorthold tenancy, strengthening their ability to develop housing schemes. I’d be interested to have a further conversation with Mike Hedges in regard to the legislation he believes is required to build the opportunities in co-operatives that he recognises.

Across both housing debates today, Llywydd, I’ve explained the comprehensive and innovative approach—and, of course, while we may differ in politics on some sides of the Chamber, what we all do agree is that we do need to increase the housing supply across Wales and across the UK. It’s important to remember that added value housing investment provides by creating new jobs and also training opportunities. It also helps keep local businesses viable, and the housing sector in Wales has already delivered very significant community benefits to our joint efforts to improve the way that we build homes—