Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:09 pm on 16 October 2018.
Thanks, Minister, for your statement today. I agree it's a promising programme, and it'll be interesting to see how far you can progress it and how much impact it will ultimately have on your housebuilding targets. I'm glad you see a big role in this for the SMEs. I think that's a welcome development. You mentioned the skills shortage that we do have in the construction industry in general, and with innovative housing there may well be certain specialist skills that are needed. So, how far can you ensure that we are making every effort in Wales to train Welsh people to do these jobs and to help progress with your programme for innovative housing? There's also an issue of where we build the houses. There is a need to make sure we use brownfield sites as far as possible, so do you recognise that need and are you doing as much as possible to utilise the brownfield sites?
I think we recognise that innovation can take many forms and there are many different kinds of schemes. I know you're investigating lots of different models and that only some of them eventually come to fruition. So, innovation is good. I note that, last year, there was a Tesco built in London where, as one of the planning conditions, they had to provide flats above the store. That was the first scheme of that kind that I'd heard of. That's only an example, but are there innovative ideas like that that can be used where we tweak the planning conditions so that we get more types of innovative housing? Thank you.