I thank Nick Ramsay for those questions. He's quite right that the statement today is an updating statement, designed to make sure that Assembly Members know where we have got to in the development of this new possibility for devolution. We are not at all in a definitive place in relation to a vacant land tax, but I thought it was important—that Members would want to know both where the process had got to and where the thinking on developing policy ideas had arrived at as well.

In relation to the timescales that Nick Ramsay asked me about, as I said in the statement, I hope that we will be in a position to make a formal submission to the Treasury in the autumn of this year. There's a lot of work going on with the Treasury to make sure that we've got organised the material that they will need in order to be able to make a decision at that point, so we're doing that work now and we'll formally submit it in the autumn. The Treasury will then have a job of work to do in considering the material that we have provided. I think their rules will require them to carry out a brief consultation on our proposals themselves, and if that is successful then in the spring I hope we would be in a position where the Treasury would take the necessary Orders through the UK Parliament, and it will be for the Assembly to decide whether or not it wanted to take on the new power. 

After that, my intention would be to consult on the idea of a vacant land tax here in Wales, and to have a greater depth of detail beneath what we are proposing. I remain open-minded about where all that will take us, and if the evidence that we got in through consultation persuaded us that this was not an idea that had value here in Wales, then we would have to learn the lesson of that consultation. I embark on it with some confidence that this is a useful new tool that we would want to develop, but if we're serious about being evidence informed in the way we make decisions, we have to be open-minded enough in this very new area to be open to the fact that consultation might provide evidence that would point in a different direction. So, I don't expect the process to be rapid. I think it's more important that we do it properly than we just rush to make use of a power that we've obtained. I want to do it thoroughly and I want to make sure that those who have an interest in it know that their views and their voices will be properly heard in it all. 

I start from the point of view that this is, as Nick Ramsay said, just one tool that is available to help us in this area, but I believe it's very likely to be a useful and effective one, but it's not the only factor—absorption rates and other factors are important as well. In the meantime, we continue to learn the lessons where we can from others. The Republic of Ireland, the Government there's been very generous with giving us the time of its senior officials to make sure we've learnt from their experience so far. Nick Ramsay asked me what I thought that the lessons were; I'll just identify two at this point. I think the first thing that they said to us was that it's very important that this is a planning-driven idea, not a tax-raising idea. You're doing it in order to make effective the planning system and the permissions that it provides. And, secondly, I think they said to me, 'Don't forget that regeneration is just as important a purpose of this tax as housing.' Housing tends to be the obvious thing that you refer to, but regeneration is an equally important policy objective for a vacant land tax.