Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:37 pm on 13 February 2018.
Well, almost all the questions the Member raises are proper ones, but he was right in the very beginning that they are proper for a point in the process when the power is available to us in the National Assembly, and not at a point where we couldn't do anything in this field, whether we could answer all those questions or not. I make three points in reply to what the Member has said.
First of all, I share the anxieties of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which he raised during his budget speech, in which he pointed to the thousands of permissions for housing development in London that go unused. And that's why he has asked Sir Oliver Letwin to produce a report on that matter, and we will look carefully at what that report has to say.
Secondly, he asked why a local authority should put its own vacant land on a register if they're going to be taxed on it. One of the things I was told in the Republic of Ireland, Dirprwy Lywydd, was what a popular success this idea had been with members of the public phoning up the local authority, to say, 'Why isn't that piece of vacant land at the end of my street on your register?' So, this isn't a matter just of the local authority being judge and jury in its own cause here. There will be criteria, and citizens will be amongst those who will police this policy to make sure that it's a success.
And, finally, and thirdly, let me say to the Member that some of us here do not always believe that because something different happens on one side of the border that it is inevitable that the better development will be on the English side, and that Wales will always be at a disadvantage. We do things because we think we do them better here, and that's what we're here to do.