Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:20 pm on 14 March 2018.
Can I thank Vikki Howells for such an excellent use of the short debate? This is exactly what we should be discussing, and made more vivid still by that excellent film. This is a really important issue, Cabinet Secretary. There is cross-party consensus. We need to build more, as Vikki outlined. And can I just say that I think there is a mood across the UK, and just remind you that yesterday the Chancellor in his spring statement did report on Sir Oliver Letwin's work to look at the building rate in the housing market? Whilst Oliver Letwin has identified a range of issues—a web of commercial and industrial constraints, as he put it, including the availability of skilled labour, the limited availability of capital, sometimes, and local transport infrastructure and other reasons—he did say none of these appears to be primary. We have a really fundamental issue about land supply and we need to take more control of this ourselves. A tax mechanism may be the way; I'm open to considerations. But, when land is identified to be built on, it should be built quickly, with the huge social need for housing and, as Vikki so ably demonstrated, it has a big impact on communities. Twenty five, 30 years we'll be waiting with some of these sites, when there could be wonderful family homes or a range of homes in great sites in the Cynon Valley. I really think we need action, and I do welcome the intention of the Welsh Government to act in this area.