Diolch. I'd like to thank the Welsh Government for bringing forward this debate today, because it is important that we analyse how this review is going to move forward and explore some of the current issues of affordable housing. I've been keen to be co-operative on the broader housing agenda as I feel that the housing Minister does share many of our concerns and I appreciate that she has made an effort to include us in her thinking on these issues. There will always be areas of disagreement, however, and I'm afraid that using the term 'ambitious' in the context of the Welsh Government's affordable housing strategies is one of those areas.

Firstly, there is broad understanding that 20,000 affordable homes over the course of this term isn't enough, with Community Housing Cymru noting last year that over 4,000 social housing units were needed alone each year in order to cope with the basic population rise. This, of course, does not cover the private housing market, which has been under increasing pressure, particularly over affordability issues.

I'm also concerned that there are difficulties with the Welsh Government's definition of what constitutes affordable. One of the biggest problems with the definition of 'affordable' and, therefore, what this Government considers success in building these homes, includes homes bought under schemes like Help to Buy. Only 75 per cent of properties bought under Help to Buy went to first-time buyers. A quarter went to those purchasing a different or upgraded home, meaning that, for a quarter of those purchasing under the scheme, they did not necessarily have affordability issues. A serious problem identified is that 2,277 of the homes bought under the scheme—a third of those bought—were for over £200,000 in value. And we know that that's quite a hefty sum. So, why are these homes included in affordable housing statistics? How can we possibly classify that amount as being affordable? Only 701 homes were purchased for less than £125,000—a figure that is still out of reach of many people.

In terms of the rented sector, intermediate rented housing is still out of reach of a lot of people, particularly those affected by welfare changes and cuts in recent years. So, I believe that this point of what constitutes affordability needs to be addressed in this review and a narrower, clearer definition established as to what constitutes affordable. When we don't have clear definitions, we won't begin to be able to realistically assess what we need to really tackle as part of this crisis.

We do note that the number of new social housing units per year is increasing but, when you consider the overall trend going back over the last 40 years, the numbers being completed are still low. We are on a par at the moment with the late 1990s in terms of annual completions. We've also had an increase in the number of empty homes, despite the Welsh Government's Houses into Homes scheme. There has, in fact, been an increase of around 5,000 in the number of—I was going to say naked—vacant properties in Wales since 2012-13. That would be interesting, wouldn't it? [Interruption.] That woke you all up, didn't it? It's clear to us and should be clear to everyone in this Senedd that, despite Welsh Government soundbites and good intentions, we are not anywhere near enough to setting a bold enough agenda in this area in terms of availability of houses in the social rented sector, and we don't yet have the right definitions laid down when it comes to even what constitutes affordability.

I'd like to briefly turn to some other aspects of affordability, which have been touched on by the Minister. Energy efficiency is a key component to what is affordable. It matters because an energy inefficient home can make it an unaffordable home too. This is recognised in the fact that the Welsh Government has the Arbed scheme, and other Governments across the UK have their own schemes, but it hasn't allocated the resources needed to fully upgrade social housing, and the targets for eliminating fuel poverty will not be met. Its efforts have been substantially less ambitious than in Scotland, and as such it's likely that some of the existing affordable housing stock is not affordable.

Social landlords have been adapting in different ways to this problem. We had a debate recently where we mentioned what's happening in Wrexham with regard to fitting of solar panels, but this is just one example. There needs to be much more. There is a problem across the UK when building new developments also, where we are not including accessibility to services of employment centres as part of our considerations, which is why I think we get opposition to many of these housing developments, particularly in rural areas.

The effects of austerity have meant less sustainable sites, less public transport options, and less services included as part of new developments. This not only makes it difficult for those on low incomes to build a sustainable and affordable life in a new home, but also makes it less acceptable to others in a local area where a new development is based.

In the time that I have left—. I would think we need to enhance on what we're doing in relation to tenants' rights, and I would like to see a Bill to that effect go forward in this Assembly. I think we are passing a lot of legislation in relation to housing but I'm not seeing enough on tenants' rights, and that obviously has a lot to do with reclassification, but I think that they need to be engaged much more. I've been going around lots of local housing associations and people do feel not as involved as they'd like to be in management fees and how they're determined, in the rent hikes that social landlords have placed upon them. So, I would urge the Minister in all of this to consider the rights of tenants to be at the heart of any decisions that are made as part of this ongoing review.