Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion today. I’m pleased to open this debate on the general principles of the Abolition of the Right to Buy and Associated Rights (Wales) Bill. I introduced the Bill last March, and it aims to protect the supply of social housing from further erosion in the face of a high level of demand and shortage of supply. As well as abolishing the right to buy and right to acquire, the Bill will encourage social landlords to invest in new social housing, safe in the knowledge that it won’t be at risk of having to be sold after a few years.

Llywydd, the Bill has a solid evidence base. Between 1981 and 2016, over 139,000 local authority and housing association homes were sold under these schemes. Many properties have ended up in the private rented sector, creating higher costs for tenants, and where housing benefit is claimed, that cost can add more to the public purse. While the right to buy has been suspended in some parts of Wales, significant housing pressures still continue across the country, and the Bill abolishes the rights across Wales, meaning that social housing will be protected throughout the country. The Bill was developed following consultation on the White Paper of 2015, which showed clear support for the aims of this Bill.

The Bill will abolish the right to buy, preserved right to buy and right to acquire for social housing tenants, at least one year after Royal Assent. But to encourage investment in new homes, the right will end for homes that are new to the social housing stock, and therefore have no existing tenants, two months after Royal Assent. The Bill includes provisions to ensure that tenants are fully informed, in a timely manner, of the effects of the Bill, and the Bill has been considered by members of the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee, and I’m grateful to those three Chairs, John Griffiths, Huw Irranca-Davies and Simon Thomas, and all the Members for the thoughtful scrutiny. I’d also like to place on record my thanks to stakeholders for the evidence that has contributed to the robust report provided to me. Inevitably, some stakeholders do not agree with every aspect, but I believe all recognise the need to safeguard our social housing stock for future generations.

I’m carefully considering the committees’ recommendations, with a view to responding positively to as many of those as possible, either through Government amendments, or by other means, such as guidance. I share the desire expressed by the ELGC committee to ensure the provision of clear and appropriate information to tenants about abolition. If the general principles of the Bill are agreed today, I intend to launch a consultation on the information document to tenants tomorrow. A series of tenant engagement events will form a key element of the consultation. They will be hosted by the Tenant Participation Advisory Service Cymru to gauge the views of tenants on the information, and they will feed the results back to us. I’m grateful to TPAS for their assistance in this matter.

I also intend to consult the financial inclusion steering group of the National Advice Network about the financial aspects of the right to buy and the information provided to tenants also. In addition to providing a copy of the information document to social landlords, the ELGC committee recommends an amendment to require Welsh Ministers to provide other relevant organisations with a copy of the document when it’s issued to social landlords. We do intend to send the document to a wide range of stakeholders, but I consider the recommendation would improve the Bill and I propose to bring forward an amendment at Stage 2 following the recommendations of committee.

The committee also recommended an amendment to specify the information that qualifying landlords must provide to all their relevant tenants, such as the dates on which restrictions on the new homes and the full abolition will take place. I also accept the committee’s recommendation, and I recognise concern that tenants may be less well informed than others, and I intend to bring forward that amendment at Stage 2 to specify the minimum information about the effects of the Bill that all social landlords must provide to tenants.

Finally, Llywydd, the committee recommends an amendment to ensure that qualifying landlords communicate the required information to tenants in the most appropriate and accessible ways to meet their varying needs. I appreciate the committee’s concern that the information-for-tenants document should be made available to tenants in whatever way is necessary to meet their needs and I wholeheartedly agree with the principle behind this recommendation. However, I do not consider it necessary to make provision in the Bill, as landlords are already very effective in engaging with their tenants. In line with the principle behind the recommendation, therefore, as part of the consultation on the information to be sent to tenants, I will also consult on the best practice for tenant engagement and will also provide advice to social landlords on disseminating that information.

The committee’s other recommendations do not require amendments to the Bill, Llywydd. They recommend that I should work with the relevant advice services to monitor and review the impact of the Bill on the demand for services, with a view to providing additional financial support ahead of abolition if the need arises. We will work with advice services and monitor the impact of the Bill, and I do not anticipate the need for extra resources, but I’m happy to keep this under review.

I also welcome the report from the CLA committee. The committee has asked that I explain the reasoning behind the Bill amending existing UK legislation as opposed to the consolidation of a freestanding Bill. Llywydd, if I may take a moment to explain, the Bill abolishes the right to buy that was established in England and Wales by legislation dating back to 1985. In order to do this, it has to amend existing England-and-Wales legislation insofar as it applies to Wales. To combine these necessary amendments with freestanding independent provision, the Bill would require very extensive restatement of the law relating to the right to buy for a temporary period only. In the Bill—whose whole purpose is to abolish the right rather than to make provision about that—that’s why we’ve moved in that direction. The Welsh Government remains committed to promoting the accessibility and coherence of bilingual Welsh law. In many cases, this will result in consolidation of existing legislation. A general housing law consolidation project would not, however, be an appropriate addition to the Bill, which is making substantive provision about the narrow and discrete area of just housing law on this particular issue. Consolidation of housing law would go well beyond this and needs to be considered on its own merits.

Other recommendations concern the provision of information by the Welsh Ministers to landlords, and the committee recommends amendments are made to the duty of the Welsh Ministers to take all reasonable steps to provide landlords in Wales with the information. Llywydd, while I note the recommendation of the CLA committee, these provisions were also considered by the ELGC committee, who were content with the current arrangements in the Bill. So, I do not propose to bring forward an amendment on this matter on the basis of the recommendations of the ELGC policy committee.

The other two recommendations from the CLA committee for amendments relate to quite technical aspects concerning the detailed drafting of the Bill, and I’ll be seeking further advice on the technical matters ahead of Stage 2, and I will give the committees and the Senedd the opportunity to scrutinise that.

Llywydd, finally, I’m grateful for the scrutiny and support of the Finance Committee. I’m pleased that they are content with the modelling in the RIA, and their view that the burden the Bill could place on the sector would not be too onerous. I formally move.