Plaid Cymru will support proceeding with this legislation today. It’s about time that it happened. It puts right a historic error that has contributed to an inadequate supply of social housing in Wales.

Every week I, like many of you, have people coming to my surgery with housing problems—people living in inappropriate social housing, or they live with relatives, are about to become homeless, or they can’t find social housing and they don’t have enough points to move up the waiting list. This is something that happens on a weekly basis.

The committee report does reflect general agreement on the principles, apart from the clear dissent of the Conservative Member. My colleague Jocelyn Davies did a great deal of work in this area as Minister for housing, and I praise her for establishing the processes that have enabled local authorities to suspend the right to buy. In a way, this legislation simply confirms that good practice.

Just a few things on the right to buy: it didn’t make much financial sense because it was a subsidy for those who had some money behind them and happened to be in the right place at the right time. It didn’t benefit people in blocks of flats in areas that weren’t attractive, who couldn’t get mortgages. It did mean a reduction in the social housing stock, increasing the problems of overcrowding and homelessness as a result. In some cases, it did create profits for buy-to-let landlords, creating poorer housing conditions, more often than not.