I think these sites also highlight some of the problems caused by land banking that I mentioned earlier. I'm going to focus on the first site, the former Phurnacite site, to illustrate this. Firstly, the site being kept in its present condition stops it being redeveloped. That means that 500 new homes cannot be built. This means that plans to develop land for economic purposes and to provide a new primary school cannot be pursued. This means the vision of new recreational facilities, including reclaimed lakes, cannot be realised. But the poor condition of the site is also having very real impacts on the well-being of the local community. I am indebted to local ward councillor Tina Williams who told me about some of these. There are public health issues from vermin, there are infrastructure challenges on back lanes, there are antisocial issues, with fly-tipping and trespassing on the site—all impacting on the well-being of local residents.

Having sketched out some of the problems of land banking, I now want to turn to solutions. In Germany, the value of land is frozen after planning authorities specify an area for residential construction. Public or community land banks that acquire land at existing values can achieve similar outcomes. But I want to suggest today that the Welsh Government’s proposals for a vacant land tax offer the solution that we need.

This is incredibly exciting. These plans will, firstly, allow us to test our new tax-raising powers, to devise new, innovative made-in-Wales taxes to develop the problems that our communities are facing—not just to raise money, which will always be welcome to invest in our cherished public services, but to change behaviour and build a better Wales. Secondly, the vacant land tax should work to remedy exactly those problems I have described. As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance said:

'We can all of us imagine what it must be like to be left living somewhere where, all around you, buildings are not occupied, where fly-tipping is taking place, and where there is no sense at all that the place that you lived in is loved or has a positive future.'

Tackling urban dereliction and making it right for local communities is something this tax could achieve. Moreover, it would diminish the incentives to buy land for speculative purposes, making it more expensive to hoard and encourage efficient land use instead. The Welsh Government’s proposals are straightforward. Planning authorities would establish a register of vacant land. After a year's registration, a levy will apply. Collected annually by local planning authorities, it will be set as a percentage of the value of the site. The first-year levy will be 3 per cent, rising to 7 per cent in the second year. The scheme will be cost neutral and money left over will be channelled into regeneration to address some of the issues land banking has caused. Quite simply, the land tax will make it more expensive to hold on to land that has been identified as suitable for development.

I know that the Welsh Government's position is that the definition of vacant land will be key to both the operation of the tax and achieving the policy effect. Efforts are being made to avoid unintended consequences and further work will need to be undertaken to define vacant land in the Welsh context. Thought will also need to be given to those cases where barriers prevent developers taking forward their plans. I know the Cabinet Secretary for Finance has responded to this point in a previous Plenary session. As he said, the vacant land tax will apply when no effort is being made to bring land into purposeful use. It will not be used to penalise people who are working hard to make use of the permissions that have been granted. At this point, although the Cabinet Secretary cannot be with us today, I want to pay tribute to his vision and that of his team in taking this forward.

One of the strengths of the vacant land tax is that we would not be the first nation to use this as a solution. I know the example of the Republic of Ireland is often cited, though I do note comments from Fianna Fáil that the Irish rate should be doubled. We must make sure that any tax is set at the appropriate level to achieve the change we want. The UK Government has also spoken of going to war with land bankers, and there have been talks around 'use it or lose it’ powers in London specifically.

With a powerful consensus emerging behind the idea of a vacant land tax, it is clear that it could offer a workable solution to land banking, which would in turn meet our commitments on this area as set out in the 2016 Welsh Labour manifesto and deliver benefits for the Cynon Valley and for communities across Wales.