Item 6 is a statement by the Minister for Housing and Regeneration on low-cost home ownership. I call on the Minister for Housing and Regeneration, Rebecca Evans.

Thank you. The Welsh Government believes in social housing; we believe in affordable housing. It's our ambition for everyone to live in a home that meets their needs and supports a healthy, prosperous and successful life. We know that we must work across Government to achieve this. 'Prosperity for All' not only affords housing the priority it deserves, but reaffirms our long-standing commitment to both social housing and affordable housing. We will deliver 20,000 affordable homes during this term of Government. Social rented housing will account for the biggest proportion of this. Last year alone, we supported the investment of £179 million through our social housing grant and housing finance grant programme. 

Under Thatcher's right to buy, we lost 139,000 homes from our social housing stock. We have legislated to put a stop to that, preserving our social housing stock for those who need it most, and giving local authorities the confidence to build. And I want to work with them to build at scale and pace. We know that no single type of tenure is right for everyone. We believe that home ownership is not just for people on higher incomes. People on lower incomes have aspirations to own their own home, and we will help them in ways that do not diminish our social housing.

Rising house prices and higher deposit requirements have made it more difficult for potential home owners to get their foot on the housing ladder. Indeed, the Resolution Foundation recently published their prediction that under half of millennials may own their own home by the time they reach 45. This is why I want to increase and improve the range of options available to people who wish to own their own home, providing new opportunities alongside our longer-standing products. Between January 2014 and the end of March 2018, our Help to Buy—Wales scheme had supported the construction and sale of nearly 6,900 homes, with more than 750 in the immediate pipeline awaiting completion. The scheme will make a significant contribution to the delivery of our 20,000 affordable homes target.

Help to Buy—Wales is delivering exactly what it set out to do. It provides a shared equity loan of up to 20 per cent of the property's value, allowing buyers of new-build properties to move into a home with a minimum deposit of only 5 per cent. This is especially important for first-time buyers and, as a result, they make up over 75 per cent of Help to Buy—Wales applications. In addition, it continues to provide a boost to the housing industry by supporting the construction of new homes across Wales. Investing in housing has clear benefits for the economy, supporting the construction industry and the associated supply chain.

We continue to make Homebuy—Wales available. This shared-equity scheme offers purchasers the opportunity to buy an existing home, and has particular appeal in the areas where there is limited new build, including rural areas where there is little volume building. I have asked my officials to revisit this established scheme and, in collaboration with local authorities and registered social landlords, consider whether any additional measures can be identified to improve and support its growth. I am keen to consider additional home ownership opportunities for people living in rural areas where house prices are particularly high. My officials are exploring options such as self-build, which may provide additional opportunities.

I am pleased to draw Members' attention to the fact that we have made significant strides to improve our low-cost home ownership offer in the last few weeks, introducing two new schemes and the Your Home in Wales website. I launched the Rent to Own—Wales and Shared Ownership—Wales schemes to help a broader range of people access home ownership. Rent to Own—Wales will help people who can afford monthly payments but are not able to save enough for a mortgage deposit. Shared Ownership—Wales will help those who have access to a small deposit and are able to get a mortgage on a proportion of the value of the property.

The Welsh Government is investing £70 million in these new home ownership initiatives as part of our commitment to build 20,000 affordable homes during this term of Government. Early interest in the schemes has been very positive, with six housing associations across Wales now registered to take part and offering a portfolio of homes. The focus will now be on improving the supply of homes across all local authority areas in Wales. The launch of these two new schemes represents an increase in the options available to support aspiring home owners, including first-time buyers and young people hoping to stay in, or return to, their communities. 

Clear information is essential for people considering buying their own home, and I recognise that, with a number of different options, there does need to be clarity about what is available. That's why I have launched the Your Home in Wales website that provides key information on all Welsh Government-funded home ownership schemes. This practical guide will help people determine which scheme is best suited to their personal circumstances. These schemes will all contribute to our ambitious target of delivering 20,000 affordable homes during the lifetime of this Assembly.

I want to lay the groundwork for the prospect of setting even more stretching targets in the future, in response to a range of housing needs. I also want Welsh Government to continue to create a climate that drives innovation and improvements in terms of design, quality and energy efficiency. To support this, Members will be aware that I've commissioned a review of affordable housing supply. To ensure that the review is fair, transparent and robust, I am establishing an independent panel to oversee this work under independent chair, Lynn Pamment. The review will need to balance the growing need for affordable homes against a backdrop of continuing pressures on the public expenditure available to support house building, and I look forward to providing detail as the review progresses.

Our low-cost home ownership schemes, combined with our work in other areas of housing and our forthcoming review, clearly demonstrate that the Welsh Government is committed to achieving its ambition for everyone to live in a home that meets their needs and supports a healthy, prosperous and successful life. 

The Llywydd took the Chair.

I feel I ought to start in a more generous spirit than I did last week, because we often clash on housing matters. So, let me just welcome some of the tone of this statement and such phrases as: 'I want to work with them to build at scale and pace'—that's the various people building houses; 'We believe that home ownership is not just for people on higher incomes'—well, that's why I defended the right to buy, although the Minister can coherently hold to this principle as well, I'm not denying that, even though we would disagree; 'The focus will now be on improving the supply of homes across all local authority areas in Wales'; and 'I want to lay the groundwork for the prospect'—'prospect' is a bit weak, but anyway—'of setting even more stretching targets in the future'. So, some of the tone has improved, but I fear now I have to go back to type and just remind people of our current situation, and I'll try, also, to compare it to that of England, which is also in a housing crisis. I've always been balanced in my remarks, and I don't think the Welsh Government has invented the sort of housing market that we're currently in, but it's just its level of response and the projections that it has come out with for housing need that I have particular problems with. If we don't have the correct targets to aim for, we're not going to meet the justified aspirations of so many people, especially younger people and people forming families.

If I look at the house building stats, the current projections, which are accepted by the Welsh Government, are that we need 8,700 homes each year—8,700. That's 5,200 market, 3,500 social. In fairness, the Welsh Government now has a target of 4,000 social each year—or 'roughly affordable' is a more general description. The alternative Holmans projection produced in 2015 estimated that the following was needed each year: 7,000 market, 5,000 social. That gives you 12,000 as a target. It couldn't be achieved instantly, but it's something that you would have to work up to. If the alternative projection is more accurate—and I think there is a high level of academic opinion, anyway, that it is—we will be short of 66,000 homes by 2031, and I'm taking 2031 as a reasonable period of time now in which to look at our deeper housing strategy. That is a real concern, and I do hope your review is going to look at these projections seriously and come up with a serious response, which the Welsh Government has never done. It has never responded officially to Professor Holmans's projection and said why it doesn't agree with him. It just has ignored it, it has made no attempt to refute it.

Now, look at England: the UK Government wants to build 300,000 homes each year in England by the mid-2020s. That equates, or would equate if we had the same target by the mid-2020s, to 15,000 homes each year in Wales. It is a massively different scale, and I think, when you're setting the strategy in these fundamental reviews, you've got to talk this language and tell us where you want to set your targets, what is your pace or whatever—scale and pace, to use the words in your own statement.

Let me just tell you what we are doing at the moment. In 2017, we built 6,885 new dwellings. The last time we reached the Welsh Government's target of 8,700 was in 2008. That's the scale of the current crisis. Now, I don't completely blame the Government for this, there are wider factors, but target setting is really, really important.

Can I just come to a couple of focused questions? What is the Minister's latest estimate of the number of affordable homes that we are building in Wales each year? We're now two years through this five-year Assembly and I want to know if we're anywhere close to the scale and, therefore, the pace to meet the 20,000 target, because by my calculations—the data is not very complete and we await more releases, obviously—there are grounds for being concerned. By the time of your affordable housing supply review report, and that's set to be completed by April 2019, we will be over halfway through the Assembly's term. It'll be too late then to be told that these targets are no longer realistic or that we need more ambitious targets. I think we need to know what your ambition is now. In particular, why is the review, in terms of its terms of reference, not even looking at housing need? The current projections are not being met, of course, as I've outlined, but they're not high enough anyway, even if we could meet them, but there's nothing in the terms of reference that I can work out—of course, we've not had the opportunity of closely scrutinising you on this—that they will be really looking at projections. It's only on the best evidence and projections that we can base housing policy and strategy for the future. Thank you.

I thank you very much for those comments and particularly welcome the way in which you opened the remarks in a positive sense. I will certainly seek to move forward in that spirit as well. You mentioned that you are pleased to hear that I'm keen to work with local authorities, particularly, to start building at scale and pace, and you would have heard me talk in the Chamber previously about the work that I'm doing to try and work with local authorities to increase the borrowing cap. I just would provide an update, really, that I've consulted with local authorities on a couple of proposals. One is in the short term: how do we use that unallocated borrowing capacity that we have, so around £17 million—how do we focus that at the local authorities that are ready to build? And to also challenge them over the medium term to work up some potential schemes that could be brought forward very quickly, should additional money and borrowing capacity be made available from the UK Government? We're certainly having those discussions with the Treasury, and as soon as I'm able to update Members further on that, I'll be pleased to do so, but, as I say, there is work progressing with that.

In terms of housing need, I'm very aware of the Public Policy Institute for Wales report that Alan Holmans was commissioned to do and was published back in 2015. I do recognise that those figures now need to be updated. I know there's been much debate between you and Welsh Government over several years on those figures. You refer to the alternative projection, which is the projection that suggests we would need 12,000 units a year. Those alternative projections, as I understand it, were based on an earlier set of household projections—the 2006-based census—and those don't take account of the most recent changes to household size and type, as recorded by that census. So, we are moving on a different trajectory, which is why we need to look again and do some further work and reassess those figures. So, we are doing that. 

My officials have met with experts, with a view to developing a robust piece of work that will look at housing need across Wales, and it will very much be in the context of that that the review takes place. I would also say that officials have been gathering information about the method of determining housing need that is used by other UK Governments, and they've certainly had some constructive conversations with officials—from the Scottish Government particularly. So, this information, combined with advice from external experts, will help determine the approach that we take, but I just want to reassure Members how seriously I take the issue of housing need in the future and having robust targets that are achievable but also very much reflect the need that is in the community, but also looking at housing need, breaking it down into the different types of tenure and different types of housing: social housing, intermediate housing, affordable housing and, then, market housing.

Where Welsh Government does have the opportunity— . Although we don't have many levers in terms of market housing, actually I believe that we can create a climate for improving the delivery of, and speeding up the delivery of market housing. One of the ways that we can do that can be through our innovative housing programme, which I think will provide us with ways in which to build houses at a much quicker pace in future. I was very pleased that, last Thursday, we opened the 2018-19 round for applications, and this is the first time, now, that we've opened this not just to social landlords, but also the private sector, so that private sector builders can apply for funding in order to support the innovation element of their build as well. I think that this could give us the opportunity to see more innovative housing built at scale. This is a £90 million investment, over three years; £19 million was awarded to 22 innovative projects over the last year, so £71 million remains. So, there is plenty of opportunity for good schemes to come forward, but I'm very clear that although we're at this stage of innovating and testing out lots of different ideas, we are going to have to come to a point where we actually, through the evaluation of the various different projects, decide what's best for Wales and where we want to put our efforts in terms of creating the kind of scale of build that we would want to see in the future. 

In terms of whether I'm confident that we are going to hit our 20,000 target—yes, I am. And I can tell you that we're breaking down that target: 5,500 units of social housing grant; 1,500 housing finance grant 2; 6,000 of the units will be through Help to Buy; 1,000 will be rent to own, or shared ownership, and those are the two schemes I've particularly been highlighting today; 1,000 we would hope would be built through the local authority council house building programme; 1,000 through the innovative design programme; 1,000 through section 106 agreements; 800 through Vibrant and Viable Places; and RSL self-funded build—2,500. That would actually take us over the 20,000 mark. And one of the reasons that I am confident that we are able to achieve that target is because, as Members will be aware, house builders often work on a three-year rolling programme, so we're able to see the kind of projects that are coming down the line and the volume of houses that are in the pipeline. That does give us confidence that we will be able to hit that target. But as I say, I would like the review to be looking at setting even more stretching targets for the future. 

Thank you for an advance copy of the statement, and before I go into some questions about this particular statement, I'd just like to ask your views on some of the news reports, over the weekend, about the fact that there are councils in England that are minded to buy some housing stock here in Wales—I think Merthyr council was quoted. This isn't a new phenomenon, actually. When I was a student at Aberystwyth university, I saw a DVD from a borough in London, wanting to promote Ceredigion as a place to live for tenants in London, which, obviously, I don't think is a bad thing—we should encourage people to come to Wales if they choose to come and live in Wales—but what does that mean for you, as the Government, if there are councils in the city of London that are buying up stock that potentially you want to develop here in Wales, with Welsh councils? How can we understand what your engagement is with those particular local authorities, to know what that will mean then for our targets here in Wales?

We do welcome the review being set up. I also welcome the terms of reference, and particularly the focus on funding options to secure the long-term affordable housing choices that we have. I understand—as we all do—that financial considerations are important in the current environment, but of course, we need to be ambitious, not just in the social rented sector but in terms of homes to buy. It's estimated that if the UK had built 300,000 homes in the UK per year since 1996, then the average UK house price today would be only 7 per cent lower than it currently is. The current housing crisis is not only the product of a lack of homes. It's the product of a lack of accommodation amongst lenders and Government to recognise the role that unstable jobs, stagnant pay and the rising cost of living are having across the whole sector. So, where Government can step in to help, then we certainly would welcome that.

It's crucial, given the cost of housing and the rising cost of living, combined with stagnant wages, that there is real support for people trying to obtain an affordable home. So, I do welcome this website launch. It's important to have all of the help and information available in one place. We have been critical in the past of perhaps some piecemeal announcements and lots of information in lots of different places, so we are hopeful that this website will serve to alleviate that, to a large extent.

In terms of the two new schemes launched and other aspects of the review, I'd like to ask some specific questions. How much of the £70 million does the Welsh Government estimate it will recoup from the funding, particularly in relation to rent to own? Are you confident that the amount is enough? In terms of the other existing schemes, I feel it should be pointed out that Help to Buy isn't only a scheme for first-time buyers. The average price of a home under the scheme was £180,000, and a quarter of buyers were not first-time buyers. So, perhaps there could be a way to be more focused on the actual target audience. This scheme was initially launched as something to help the construction industry too, I believe, so I would like to ask whether the review could look at whether there are more effective ways to assist first-time buyers.

An FOI by ITV recently showed that there are now 43,000 empty homes in Wales—almost double the number from just a few years ago. This is despite the Welsh Government scheme to attempt to put empty homes back into use. So, could your review look into how effective current policies are in this regard? I understand that councils have powers to put homes back into use, but clearly they're not using those powers, otherwise the numbers would not be as low as what I have just quoted.

I'd also like the review to investigate what could be done about high rents and increases. At the moment, average private sector rent increases are lower than the amount allowed for rent increases in the social rented sector. So, this is something that needs to be looked at, along with other options.

Finally, you mentioned rural communities and how you want to look at other innovative ways of encouraging rural communities to look at housing options. I would also like to say that we need to have more community involvement in communities, so that if they can identify potentially what is needed, be it language, be it specific characteristics that need to be potentially retained in those areas—quite often a controversial topic, but a topic that we need to address—then what will your department be considering as viable options in that regard?

Thank you very much for those questions. I'll begin where you left off, in terms of the support for house building and support for people aspiring to own a home, particularly in rural communities. Because we know that, in rural communities, there is a particularly acute challenge in terms of affordability, particularly, I think, for some of our key workers—nurses, teachers and so on—who find it really difficult to be able to afford a home within their own community.

The role of our rural housing enablers is particularly important in terms of working alongside local authorities, and with our housing associations, in those rural communities, in order to pinpoint the areas where we do need to be putting in further investment and creating further opportunities for home building. I'm particularly keen to see what we can do about encouraging self-builds, and I've asked officials to provide me with some advice on this. It's something, actually, that could be beneficial for all kinds of communities, but I think in rural communities particularly it might be something that provides opportunities for people.

We've also established a rural strategic group, and that includes those rural housing enablers, housing associations, local authorities, Community Housing Cymru and the WLGA. They are a group that now meets quarterly in order to advise Welsh Government, but also to test ideas and share good practice as well. I agree that our housing proposals, but also working in partnership with planning, do offer the opportunity to support and promote the Welsh language, particularly often again in rural communities. I think that housing does have an important role to play in supporting the Welsh language.

You also referred to empty homes, and I share your concern about the number of empty homes that there are across Wales. Some of those properties could quite easily provide people with a much needed home. So, we are committed again to working with local authorities in Wales to bring back houses into use and to provide ongoing support to those authorities, to our Houses into Homes and town centre loan schemes. These initiatives, which are operated by local authorities together, have amounted to over £50 million, providing home owners with the finance that they require in order to renovate those properties and bring them up to a standard that is suitable for rent or for sale.

The terms and conditions of the Houses into Homes scheme have recently been amended to enable local authorities to have greater flexibility so they can offer a more customer-focused solution to the problem of empty houses, and loans are now available to bring empty houses back and commercial buildings back into use, but actually splitting them into flats as well in order to try and create a greater number of homes as well. So, there is work going on on empty homes, but I agree that we need to be considering what further we can do. Locally, I know of good examples in Swansea where the council is providing funding to empty home owners who are then encouraged to bring their homes up to a standard on the understanding that they will have a guaranteed tenant. So, that meets both of our agendas in terms of creating greater amounts of social housing, but also bringing empty homes back into use as well. 

The rising cost of living and the difficulty in securing enough funding for a deposit is one of the real drivers behind the rent to own Wales scheme and the shared ownership Wales scheme, and it was remiss of me not to point out earlier that the rent to own scheme particularly was one of the agreements that we came to with Kirsty Williams, who's been particularly passionate about this and the opportunity that it provides for quite some time. 

The rent to own scheme provides people with the opportunity to move into the house that they want at an early stage, but then they will be able to pay rent on that property and, between two and five years later, will be able to claim back 25 per cent of the money that they paid as rent and use that as a deposit, alongside some of the value of any increase in the value of that property as well. So, it's an opportunity for people, often young people, but as you say not always young people, to move into the house that they would like to live in and like to settle down in at an early stage. 

Six housing associations are working with us at the moment but we are having discussions to increase that and I would like to see these houses being made available across Wales. Whether people choose to go for rent to own or the shared ownership scheme will be a matter of judgment for that individual, but those particular houses are available for either scheme as well. 

I'll certainly be having some discussions with officials in terms of conversations they've had with the local authorities about the stories that you referred to over the weekend. But I will say that cross-border movement of people is very much something that's on my radar, particularly in the Newport area following the announcement of the removal of the tolls on the Severn bridge. I've had discussions with house builders and they're telling me that it is genuinely having an impact on the pressure on the housing market in that area. They're seeing increased desire for house building in the area, so there'll be some discussions that we need to be continuing to have with the local authority there to ensure that we're able to meet the needs of people within the area who want to stay within their area as well.

Thanks to the Minister for today's statement. I'm sure that we'd all acknowledge that there is a major problem facing today's younger generation who are seeking to get onto the housing ladder, and that is that, for many people, houses are simply not affordable. A major issue is that wage increases are not keeping pace with house price increases, which does create a challenging environment if we are trying to improve home ownership rates.

Your statement today focused quite a lot on shared ownership schemes. I think, to some extent, it's good to try and be innovative in helping people to raise the finance to get onto the housing ladder, and I appreciate there are different kinds of schemes—two in particular that you talked of today—but, unfortunately, shared ownership is not always a viable solution. A lot of the time, even shared ownership schemes are out of reach for many workers. Many people in jobs paying well above the minimum wage still can't get approved for mortgages in shared ownership schemes. An unfortunate consequence of this is that the same people then often end up spending even more money than the mortgage payments would have been on their monthly rent.     

There is a potential danger in making it easier for people to get approved for mortgages, because the schemes have to be sustainable for those people; it's not just about the down payment, as I'm sure you'd appreciate. What we don't want is people managing an initial down payment then struggling to keep up their monthly payments, and ultimately defaulting on their mortgages. So, there are a lot of issues relating to shared ownership. There is a fair bit of evidence that shared ownership does not automatically convert easily into full ownership. So, do you recognise that there is a big difficulty in meeting this challenge and achieving your targets? Are low-cost housing schemes providing value for money to the public purse, do you think? And are the eligibility and affordability checks robust enough? 

Another problem is the changing labour market. If home owners become unemployed they can face difficulties, as they're not automatically eligible for housing benefit. This isn't a devolved area—I understand that—but we do have a workplace now in which very few people are going to have a job for life. People even with good CVs can face periods of, hopefully temporary, unemployment. If they have taken out a mortgage, not everyone has taken out insurance. Some people are not even aware of this issue when they take out a mortgage in the first place. So, I suppose this is another case for financial education to be included in the school curriculum. Flowing from that, Minister, another question is: are you liaising to good effect with the education Minister on this issue of providing school students with this kind of financial education? 

I was encouraged to hear you mention self-build homes in today's statement. There have been surveys that suggest that many people in the UK, including in Wales, would consider building their own home given the opportunity. There was recently on one of the UK's leading plot-finding websites 'currently wanted' adverts for self-build homes in Wales. We do have a much lower rate of self-building in the UK generally than many other European countries. On the important issue of finance, lenders tend generally to perceive self-build loans as a higher risk, and I don't believe there's currently any Welsh Government grant available to people who want to do self-build. I appreciate that you say you're looking at this now, so this is something you are peering into. Also, I know that the Welsh Government did relax some planning requirements to enable the development of Lammas, which was a rural eco-village in north Pembrokeshire, so there has been some flexibility displayed in this field in the past. I wonder if you have any more information today on any proposals for Welsh Government self-build schemes. Thank you. 

Thank you very much for those questions. I'd begin by reflecting on your comments about wage increases and how difficult some people find it in order to get on the housing ladder. Our schemes today do make that easier, but I agree it's not for everybody. So, there will be an important focus from Welsh Government on ensuring that, actually, we have a healthy housing sector right across the piece, and I would start by saying that this involves work with the private rented sector particularly. You'll be aware that we already have Rent Smart Wales up and running, and that's providing assurance that those people who are renting homes to people are sufficiently licensed and have the information that they need in order to be good landlords. 

I've also committed to very shortly be introducing legislation in order to ban fees charged to tenants by letting agents and also committed to working with the sector in order to continue to drive up standards. You'll be aware, also, that we've recently finished consulting on our homes-fit-for-human-habitation standards. So, I'm quite pleased that we are working in a really constructive way with the private rented sector in order to increase and improve the offer that they're able to give, partly because I think the sector is going to become even more important in future for all of the reasons that people have described about how difficult it is for many people to get on the housing ladder—and, actually, not everybody will want to, because they'll have different priorities and different lifestyles that might not mean that they want to be settled down in one particular place. 

So, I think a healthy housing sector across the piece is important. But I would just provide reassurance that we take eligibility and affordability really seriously in terms of the products that we offer. We don't want to set people up to fail in any way. So, we're very keen that people obviously take all of the absolutely important and vital advice that they need. One way in which we are enabling some of that to happen is of course through the accredited conveyancing scheme, which I introduced as part of the package on leasehold reform. That will ensure that people are getting the adequate information they need, not only about leasehold, but are getting the kind of quality advice that they need in order to make that decision as to whether homeownership is right for them.

I completely agree on the importance of financial education, and that is certainly something that we are progressing in schools, particularly through the curriculum reform, but we're not waiting for that. There's also good work already happening as part of our financial inclusion delivery plan, which seeks to ensure that people do leave school with a strong understanding of the important information that they will need simply just to run a home, because, actually, it's a lot more complicated than people often imagine.

On the issue of self-build, I appreciate the comments that you've made today and I'll bear them in mind as we look to develop some further proposals in this area, which I would hope to share with the Chamber in due course.

House prices are driven by scarcity. It's in the large house builders' interests to reduce supply below the demand, as that will increase prices. The converse would also be true, and if you visit Spain you'll see a lot of semi-built houses because supply started to exceed demand. It's also in the interests of landowners to reduce the supply of land for houses so as to increase the value of their land. If they sold all their land in one go, then the value of that land would drop dramatically.

Help to Buy, of course, added money to the demand side. I think what I've found strange—and perhaps others have as well—is that I've met a number of young professionals over the last few months in their early 30s who are still living in privately rented accommodation. These are people who've done all the things that we as society have told them to do. They've gone out and they've studied hard, they've got good degrees, they've then followed that by getting good jobs, and they're still unable to buy a house. Now, people of my generation—and I was talking to Peter Black about this a couple of months ago—in our 20s, we went to a building society, got some money and bought a house. It was quite simple. There wasn't much fuss about it, actually. But young people now today—I use the word 'young' to describe people in their 30s, which perhaps tells you something about my age, if nothing else—. There is that problem. Most of the low-cost housing is older housing, often pre-twentieth century housing. It's certainly true in my constituency, and I believe it's true in your constituency as well, that the older housing is the cheaper housing rather than the new, modern—I say 'new'; the post-war semis and detached houses that have been built.

What is the Welsh Government going to do to improve the quality of older housing? Bring empty homes back into use: I mean, we've all, in our campaigning days, wandered around knocking on doors and wondered why No. 23 was empty—and you could see it was empty, rather than somebody hadn't registered—and then, going down another street, wondering why there were three empty houses in a block of nice terraced housing.

Supporting co-operative housing: I know I bang on about this, probably more than anybody else in this room would like to hear, but I think co-operative housing, it's something that is so popular in North America and in Europe—Vancouver's got more than Britain—that we really do need to look at it. It's a third method of providing houses, and it's something that has been ignored by Governments—well, I was going to say from a certain time, but it's been ignored by Governments for ever in this country. It's on the too-hard list. We need to build more council houses and, I think, get councils to sell land and use that to build council houses so they're building it out of their own resources. 

And the last thing is: what about—? The LDP identifies large chunks of land, and, I think, in Swansea, it's 10 houses or more. There are lots of infill sites in existence in Swansea. I can't talk about other parts of Wales, but, in Swansea, there are lots of infill sites. How about encouraging councils to allow self-build on those infill sites? This could actually deal with it. We always talk about the LDP, but, you go down a street, and there's quite often a gap where you could build two houses, but nobody has—and, over the garage often, where the garages used to be—that could be available for self-build. Why don't we do some more of this? We give money to housing associations, we support large builders, we set targets. How about doing some more innovative things that will actually get more houses built and get people moving into them?

I thank you very, very much for those comments. I particularly would begin by saying that I share your interest in co-operative housing and seeing what further we could do there, because, in the time I've been in post, I've been able to see—well, one particularly stands out in my mind, the example of the co-operative housing that we've supported in Carmarthen. I was really struck by the fact, actually, that's not just about building homes, that really is about building communities, because there was two years' worth of work that went into working alongside those residents before they even moved into their new homes in order to help them become good co-operative members, but also to create a community as well.

The skills that people have learned through being engaged with that, and the value that they've had, goes well beyond, I think, just the homes that they're able to live in. So, we do provide funding to the Wales Co-operative Centre for support for that work. But one thing I will say is that we all, I think, need to be encouraging local authorities and RSLs to be considering co-operative housing because, actually, there is a lot of heavy lifting needed at the front of this, which is perhaps one of the reasons why it is less popular and there hasn't been as much take-up as I would like. But I have agreed further funding for the Wales Co-operative Centre this year to see what we can do in terms of furthering the work on co-operative housing. I understand that there are discussions with at least 25 interested parties at the moment, so I would hope that this is an area where we can see some growth in future, just purely because of that added value that you get when you do undertake co-operative house building.

Land for housing is another area where I do recognise that there is a lot of pressure, so I'm keen to see what more we can do about utilising Welsh Government land, which I know can play a really important part in the provision of housing in Wales. A number of significant Welsh Government-owned sites have already been brought forward for housing delivery, and I'm in close contact with Ken Skates and his department, looking at the land that Welsh Government owns and whether we can bring it forward for use by RSLs particularly, potentially offering it to them at a market rate but without having to put it on the market, for example. So, looking at innovative ways in which we can support land for RSLs in particular.

We do have a land for housing scheme, and that is a loan scheme, which enables RSLs to purchase land to support the delivery of affordable and/or market homes, and that scheme has already invested £42 million to date. That's going to facilitate the delivery of over 2,800 homes, 85 per cent of which will be affordable homes. We're also looking much further afield than Welsh Government-owned land—so, land owned across the public sector—because that can be really key to the delivery of further affordable homes in future. Affordable homes have actually been delivered on land made available by the public sector during the last year to the number of 689. So, it is something that is happening, although I accept that it's something that we need to be looking at scaling up as well.

You mentioned, of course, land sitting vacant, and you'll be aware of the proposals for the vacant land tax. I think that's a positive way in which to stimulate and encourage house building in future and prevent people and organisations sitting on land that isn't going to be used for the purpose for which we understand it. 

I think small and medium-sized enterprises also have an important role to play in terms of building on those small parcels of land, land that would not be attractive to larger builders, but could be attractive to small builders or to self-builds. So, we're working really closely with the Federation of Master Builders, the Builders Merchants Federation and Welsh builders merchants in promoting a wide range of schemes that we already provide and we're also working through the house builder engagement programme, which also includes representatives on there of small private developers, including SMEs, to understand the barriers that they face to building more housing, and what we can do in order to tackle that. I met the house builder engagement programme alongside Ken Skates and Lesley Griffiths just in the last couple of weeks to understand further the barriers that there are, particularly around planning in terms of building those smaller schemes as well.

So, there is clearly a lot happening, but I appreciate that there's lots more to do, and improving the quality of existing homes is something that's of concern to me. Some of the homes in the greatest disrepair are those homes that are in the owner-occupier sector, and we need to be thinking about what we do—. Once we've achieved the Welsh housing quality standard in the RSL sector and local authority sector, then we need to start thinking, really, about the support we might be able to offer to people who own their own homes but just don't have access to the finance that they need to bring them up to a standard that we would want to see.

I'd like to welcome the review of the affordable housing supply, and I feel that local authorities are under pressure to entice big developers with low affordable housing targets, because that's the only way you can get big developers to build. I fear that the current local development plan system works with that grain rather than against it, to the outrage of residents who want affordable housing. For example, an estate has been agreed in my constituency for 260 houses, of which 60 are affordable. That is what happens when you put tactics before strategy and you have LDPs before you have strategic development plans. I don't think the Government has been right on that.

I'd like to just read to you some evidence that was given by the chief planning officer to the policy and resources scrutiny committee in Caerphilly council regarding targets for affordable homes. He said:

'It's only a target, and if it's not viable for the developers then we have to accept a reduced figure. Developers know the targets exist but they have their own set fixed costs, including their profit margins. If the developer can't make what they expect to be a profit, and the landowner can't sell the land at a price that they feel satisfactory, then no development takes place.'

This keeps us trapped in this housing crisis and I feel that the last bit of the answer to Mike Hedges that you gave does give us hope in that small firms can start to break through and start to smash that cartel—the cartel of the big four housing developers. I'm hoping to hold a cross-party group later this year and I would like to know, Minister, if you'd be willing to attend that cross-party group and hear from small house builders there. But, also, do you agree that the dominance of the big four construction companies actually works against the provision of affordable housing?

I thank you for those questions and I'd certainly welcome the opportunity to come along to a meeting of the cross-party group and I look forward to agreeing a date with you in future.

I think that your passion for small and medium-sized enterprises and also the recognition that you have of the fact that they can play a greater role in house building in Wales is very welcome. You'll be pleased to learn that we have our Wales property development fund and that's a fund specifically for SMEs to have access to finance, because, often, a lot of money needs to be spent upfront on all of the various planning and so on that is necessary—so, lots of money to be spent upfront and they often can't access that from normal sources. So, Welsh Government is able to step in there and provide access to finance to get those small and medium-sized enterprises building again. I'm very pleased to have increased the funding, previously, that is available to that. I'm also intending to announce a significant scheme designed to support SMEs and increase home building shortly, and I look forward to making a further announcement on that. So, there's been a little bit of a teaser in the Chamber today.

In terms of Help to Buy, or in terms of the role of the big developers, I think one of the cards that we have is the fact that Help to Buy is such a boon to that particular part of the industry, and they very much, I think, rely on Help to Buy. So, I think that we can be asking more through Help to Buy, for example the work that we've done on asking for sprinklers to be installed in new homes. There was some resistance to that at first, but, actually, because we do have a strong working relationship now through our home builders engagement board, I do think there are opportunities to start looking to the next Help to Buy to see what we should be asking there in future, because this one will come to an end at the end of this Assembly, and it's important we start thinking about what do we do in future, and also having those discussions with the Government across the border to understand what their plan for Help to Buy is, so we can have an understanding of the finance available to us, but also, having discussions, really, in terms of the context of the challenges that are facing us around climate change and our keenness to move towards zero carbon and so on.

So, I think that there is opportunity to work closely and constructively with all of the large home builders, as we did when we had that agreement with them to not sell any new-build houses as leasehold, for example. I think there are opportunities for positive working, whilst also trying to ensure that we get the maximum for our money in terms of the investment that we make.

As you've said already, Minister, I think we do need to understand the particular situations across Wales if we're going to make the progress necessary to meet the demand for homes in our country. In Newport, it's clear that that pressure for new homes is very considerable indeed. Since July of last year, when the announcement was made that the tolls on the Severn crossings would be abolished at the end of this year, there's been a 5 per cent rise in the lower quartile of house prices, up to February this year, and the average is 3 per cent. I think the 5 per cent is particularly difficult, because it is that lower-cost housing that's most affordable for first-time buyers, and that's where the biggest increase in price has taking place. Everybody, I think, expects these trends to accelerate as we get closer to the abolition of the tolls and, indeed, when they are actually ended. So, I would very much urge Welsh Government to recognise that situation and work with Newport City Council, the registered social landlords, the developers and others to meet that particular challenge.

I'm sure you know, Minister, it's not as if a lot of work isn't taking place in Newport by the city council, the housing associations and developers. Six hundred units of affordable housing have been delivered between 2013 and 2017, and there is a continuing programme over the next five years. As Hefin David said, viability is stated as an issue by the big housing companies when it comes to meeting the affordable housing proportions that are expected. The power that they have is a real problem as far as that's concerned, and we would like to see that addressed.

Help to Buy has been particularly significant in Newport and, indeed, since 2014, 1,248 homes have been purchased with the help of that scheme, and that's nearly a fifth of the Wales total, so obviously that is particularly significant. I would ask that you look at how that scheme will be taken forward in the future with regard to the particular challenges of Newport and how it's helped meet those particular issues.

Could I just end, Minister, by saying that, in view of all of those challenges, yes, Help to Buy has a big role to play, and affordable housing as part of big schemes and viability issues are very significant, but I would agree very much with what others have said—that we need to be innovative beyond that. Self-build, actually, has quite a significant history in Newport in places like Llanvaches and Penhow in my constituency, for example, and there is real interest in self-build. So, it's not just for rural areas, as, in fact, you said earlier; it's obviously applicable in urban areas as well.

We do have a lot of empty properties, and I wonder what might be done to force those empty properties to be brought back into use, subject to the appropriate level of support to be put in place to enable that. Nonetheless, if that opportunity isn't then taken, what might be put in place to enforce the bringing back of those properties into constructive use?

And finally, co-operatives. We've had a recent example in Newport of co-operatives playing an interesting part in meeting demand, but I wonder whether you could look at expanding that again, in the way that you mentioned earlier, building on what's already in place in Newport.

Thank you very much for those questions. I do very much recognise that the market in Newport is being impacted by the plans to scrap the tolls on the second Severn crossing. I recognise that and we're very alive to that in Government. 

That is why I was so pleased to attend, this week, the launch of Melin Homes's vision for Newport and parts of Monmouthshire for the next five years. They intend to build 1,000 new homes, but also, while they're doing that, trying to keep as much of the value as they possibly can within the community, which is why they're putting lots of focus on the work that they do in terms of employment and apprenticeships. I was really pleased to meet up with some of their apprentices and understand the benefits and the opportunities that they're having as a result of the investment that Melin Homes is making in them. And this is an opportunity for me to congratulate Melin Homes on being number 17 in The Sunday Times list of best not-for-profit organisations to work for. Certainly, speaking to those apprentices gave me a strong sense that they felt that they were very much being invested in and that they were working in an organisation where they felt valued as part of that culture. And the organisation, as well, has a really strong focus on encouraging women within it, and they hope to promote or attract women to take on larger numbers of their maintenance jobs as well, so moving women and providing opportunities for women in fields where they haven't always been available. So, that's certainly very positive, and I look forward to those 1,000 homes coming forward in the Newport area.

On co-operatives, I also think there are opportunities for co-operatives in the future, as we look to where we go beyond leasehold. Because we've got the Law Commission review going on at the moment, which I wrote to Assembly Members about earlier on today, but actually I think that we could be looking at co-operative models for running blocks or even estates and so on in future. So, I think there is plenty of potential for co-operatives to come much more to the fore in terms of how we deliver housing and those associated services in Wales as well.

On the empty properties, I did outline in my response to Bethan Jenkins some of the schemes that we have, but I think there is an issue as well, which I've asked officials to advise me on, in discussion with officials from Ken Skates's department, about compulsory purchases, because often it is the case, not only for housing but also in terms of high street regeneration, that owners either can't be found, in many cases, or that they're reluctant to let go of properties that are proving to be a blight on the high street or that aren't being used to a purpose for social good. So, I think that this is an area, again, that we can be making some inroads into, working across Government.

Thank you, Minister.