Thank you. I would like, at the start of my contribution, to acknowledge and pay tribute to Carl Sargeant for his leadership in introducing this Bill, and for his commitment and his hard work in seeing it through Stages 1 and 2. I'd also like to thank Assembly Members and, in particular, committee members, for their constructive scrutiny of the Bill during Stage 1 and Stage 2 proceedings, and for the support the Bill has had so far in its passage through the Assembly.

This Bill forms a key part of the Government’s housing policy. Ending the right to buy and the right to acquire will protect our social housing for those in need and give local authorities and housing associations the confidence to invest in new developments to help meet the need for quality, affordable housing in Wales. The right to buy has been a feature of social housing for many years in Wales, and this has resulted in the loss of a significant number of homes—more than 139,000 between 1981 and 2016—from the social housing stock. In recent years, although sales of social housing have slowed, social housing stock is still being lost at a time of considerable housing supply pressure. Recognising the impact of homes lost through the right to buy and the continued pressure on social housing, the previous Welsh Government introduced the Housing (Wales) Measure 2011. This enables a local authority to apply to suspend the right to buy and the right to acquire in its area. Currently, as we've heard, six local authorities have suspended the right to buy.

Amendment 5 seeks to lift right-to-buy suspensions and prevent any further applications for suspension being submitted. Proposing to lift suspensions ignores the fact that local authorities have demonstrated evidence of significant housing pressure and have proposed and taken action to address the pressure during the suspension period. Suspensions have been approved where evidence shows a substantial imbalance between the demand for social housing and its supply. To lift the suspensions would only exacerbate that imbalance and undermine the purpose of the Measure and the actions of the third Assembly in passing the Measure in 2011.

In suspended areas, existing tenants of social housing still have security of tenure and affordable rents. They also benefit from the investment by landlords to bring all social housing up to the Welsh housing quality standard, and this is in contrast to those who cannot access social housing.

For those who aspire to low-cost home ownership, this Government is committed to supporting them, but not at the expense of reducing the social housing stock. There are other home ownership schemes available, such as Help to Buy—Wales and homebuy. We're also developing a new rent-to-own scheme, which offers a route to home ownership for those who do not have a deposit saved, but can afford a market rent.

Where suspensions are in place, social housing landlords are reassured that investment in new social housing is a long-term investment. Developments are proposed, for example, in Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Flintshire. Lifting the suspensions would undermine the efforts of local authorities to manage their housing stock in the face of increased pressure. It would also undermine our core aim of protecting social housing for the long-term benefit of the most vulnerable people in society. I therefore urge Members to reject amendment 5 and all the related amendments.