Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. ‘Prosperity for All’ makes clear this Government’s intention to improve the prosperity and well-being of individuals, families and communities. Housing is one of the five cross-cutting priority areas identified in the strategy and underpins the delivery of many other strategic goals. People need good-quality homes throughout their lives. They give a child a place to grow and thrive. Decent housing reduces individual and family stress, and the building and refurbishment of homes creates enormous job and training opportunities. Older people need a place to live an active and comfortable retirement. And people need these good-quality homes now.

Increasing the number available, the rate at which they’re delivered and their affordability while reducing their impact on the environment are the obvious challenges. Our 20,000 affordable homes target is central to increasing supply across all tenures, and I want to do more to help people regardless of where they are in life and whatever their circumstances are. Essentially, I intend to find new ways of not only increasing the number of homes available, but also the speed at which more can be supplied. The findings of the Farmer report, ‘Modernise or Die’, clearly set out the very serious problems in the UK construction industry. It was clear to me that traditional approaches to house building would be very unlikely to deliver the changes needed. A new, innovative approach was needed and the report I commissioned from the Welsh School of Architecture demonstrated that, although there is no silver bullet, there are many potential models and methods available.

That’s why, in February of this year, I launched the innovative housing fund. With £10 million available this year and next, housing associations and local authorities were invited to bid for resources to use new housing models, new delivery pathways and new construction techniques. I challenged organisations to develop fresh thinking for delivery sooner rather than later. I have been surprised and pleased by the strength of interest in the programme and the enthusiastic response to it. This has gone beyond social housing landlords to include many other organisations, including small and medium-sized enterprises, lenders, academics, and professional bodies. We’ve spoken to many people, from a wide range of backgrounds, this year and their views and ideas have helped to shape the programme. Many have contributed their time too, helping us with everything from developing the technical documents to road testing the application packs to assessing bids. I offer everyone involved my sincere thanks.

In September, I received 35 bids for funding. I asked an independent panel to assess the schemes to identify how they offered the innovation and value required for the scale of change I want to see. On that basis, I’m delighted to say I’ve decided to fund 22 schemes this financial year. Subject to the necessary due diligence checks, I will be making available almost £19 million to build 276 new homes—nearly double what was intended. A full list of the successful schemes will be on the website later this week when all of the successful and unsuccessful applicants have been told.

However, Llywydd, I wanted to tell you about a few of them to give you a sense of the breadth of what we will be funding. Firstly, a scheme that will roll out elements of the homes as power stations project by SPECIFIC, so that people can benefit from homes that not only save them money, but have the potential to create income by producing power—many of you will know that the development of this model has received significant support from the Welsh Government. Seeing it put into practice is really exciting. A new 40-bed extra-care project for older people in the Valleys, built using modular techniques from a Welsh SME in mid Wales—I believe modular homes built in factories offer major opportunities to increase both the speed of construction and the quality of homes. I am funding other modular schemes, so that we can compare and contrast models. This will allows us to test what works best here and identify both opportunities but also potential issues. Building 24 homes in mid Wales using the home-grown homes model, where locally grown timber is used to provide both quality and low-energy homes—this will support new, local jobs and training as part of our work to support timber growers across Wales.

Llywydd, I’m also funding schemes involving homes made from recycled containers to test out their suitability as short-term or ‘meanwhile’ living solutions for people in the most urgent housing need. I believe we must try all solutions in this field.

Innovation is never without risk, and I’m not expecting every scheme to provide the long-term solutions we’re looking for. But what I do know is we must do something different and these projects have been carefully chosen. All the schemes will be subject to monitoring and evaluation so that we can learn from what works best and why. That includes asking people what they’re like to live in.

Llywydd, next year, I want to open up the programme to the private sector, as well as social landlords, to allow them to help us in our search for solutions. Last month, I announced an increase in the property development fund to assist SME house builders and developers back into the market. That fund, together with this programme, will help us to deliver new types of homes that will help meet the needs of people in Wales now and, I hope, long into the future. Diolch.