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.