I must say I find more than a hint of encouragement in this statement, and that’s not always been the case on housing issues with the Welsh Government, and we’ve had our differences. But I particularly welcome aspects of this statement. For instance, on house building, he says, and I quote, it

‘creates enormous job and training opportunities’,

I completely agree with that, and also that he wants

‘to find new ways of not only increasing the number of homes available, but also the speed at which more can be supplied.’

I think that really is the tone we need to meet current housing needs, and I’m pleased to hear that from him.

Less optimistically, but it’s also, unfortunately, an area I have to also agree with him on, the conclusion that the report he referred to comes to, that there are very serious problems in the UK construction industry, does face us. But I think that requires a comprehensive approach through the further education sector in particular to ensure that the new skills that the construction industry needs are going to be supplied, and he made several references to modular construction, which will demand those skills.

I really do welcome the aim of promoting innovation. I think that is precisely what we should be trying to do in public policy: to use the resources more effectively and to take things forward and meet several objectives at once, if possible. So, for once, can I congratulate him on his vast overspend in this respect? I think the fund is now twice as much as was intended to be spent, and he’s even going to extend the fund to the private sector next year, which, again, I welcome. But it’s a serious point: I think when innovation does take off—. And, by the sound of it, you have been surprised and very pleased at the number of projects that have come forward. Again, I think that means you’ve hit the right spot in terms of a useful Government programme.

On the specifics, then: homes as power stations—I really think that using energy efficiency in housing as a way, also, to give people even some income and, obviously, to eliminate any risk of fuel poverty for people in those homes, is just the sort of ambition we should have. I was very pleased recently to visit the SOLCER house near Bridgend with the committee. It really was wonderful to see pioneering practice there, and I think that involves Cardiff University, and you referred to some of their work. Really, I think what we want to see is that type of work taken further, and that energy efficiency house is also of a modular design.

I know there that, still, one of the problems is just taking the technology around batteries even further. There’s been a lot of progress, and they showed that to us. Where, previously, the battery took up pretty much the whole roof space if it was up there, now it’s the size of a large-ish radiator. So, there’s real progress, but it is important, I think, for feeding back into the grid and getting that income.

But, most of all, we were told that that type of pioneering design currently, as it’s still bespoke, costs about twice as much to build as traditional materials. Yet, once we get to scale, those costs are going to come down quite dramatically. I understand Carmarthen county council are in the process of building a social housing estate using these new methods and I just wonder if he’s looking at using the social housing sector as a way of establishing the viability of this type of approach and modular design and energy efficiency and indeed net generation. That will get our support.

In terms of modular homes, again I think—. I mean, this was part of the solution in the 1950s; many of those homes were thought to be temporary and there are still one or two around—they’ll probably be taken to St Fagans shortly—because they were actually quite popular and it was difficult to get some people to move on. But now the technology has advanced so much that often modular design is the preferential way of building houses. That’s been the radical shift, and I’m pleased to see that he’s joining up with the need to build flexible care for people in the Valleys, and I’d be very interested to see how that is taken on. I understand that, last year, Legal & General opened a purpose-built factory to build around 3,000 modular homes across the UK, and they estimate that the time to build those homes is 70 per cent less than traditional methods. So, again, I think there’s a significant industry here and a way of taking advantage of it if we can develop the market in Wales.

So, I do welcome that and I hope that modular design is going to be used also to meet the requirements of changing urban communities, because I do see those, especially on green principles, which again you referred to, as being part of the solution so that we have family-sized homes for younger people who may be unlikely to afford traditional semi-detached and anyway are up for a new way of life and see the advantages in this sort of living with perhaps communal play space—but, you know, really innovative, interesting buildings to live in that are also energy efficient. So, I do think, in terms of urban design, there are a lot of opportunities here. But this statement, frankly, was a breath of fresh air and I’m very pleased that the Welsh Government is making some progress in these areas.