Demand for housing has outstripped supply in Wales, as it has across the UK. For many, many years, this has been the case. The extra requirements for housing mainly came about as a result of the increase in the number of households, especially one-person households, which reflect more modern living, but also other factors, such as the rise in population.

The Welsh Conservative Party has issued its own housing strategy, 'Housing a Nation'. I know some of you have asked for it, and I've been happy to distribute it, and some of you have commented very constructively. Obviously, there'll be things in it that you will not share completely, in terms of the emphasis that we would place on those issues, but we really believe that it's important that we set out our vision and that we get the discussion started. I'm really grateful to everyone who's taken an interest in that. Our present ideas, then, map out a route so that we can begin to solve the challenges ahead, but, obviously, it's for others, now, to join together and for us all to form that consensual position.

We discuss affordability and home ownership, the issue of land and its supply, and developments in construction and innovation. We put greater emphasis on the variety, suitability and design of housing. We propose greater collaboration between housing associations and local authorities, and put forward ideas to encourage greater community engagement. We raise the issue of employment within the construction sector, and the upskilling of experienced workers who risk falling behind the evolution of housing standards, particularly with more modern building techniques. This is an area that rarely gets talked about in any debate, really, on housing, but it really is quite crucial, and I'm glad the Shelter report does mention it, because there's a great opportunity here for us. As Shelter emphasise, the importance of residential construction to the domestic economy is vast, with one of the highest multipliers that have been calculated, standing at 184 per cent. So, it's a really good activity for the economy as well as the massive social need it meets.

We also talk about the sustainable building of homes—not just sustainable in terms of their materials but sustainable for adaptability in the future so that they're not merely suitable today but suitable for their whole lives.

As I said, our ideas are not the be-all and end-all. We've put them forward, actually, as a White Paper, to get greater stakeholder and political engagement, so that we can be informed about what works and what doesn't.

I think, Llywydd, I need just to mention briefly some of the costs that might be involved. Again, I recommend that people have a look at the Shelter report. It does deal with England only, but it's not difficult to read over and to make some calculations. Most of the costs will involve capital investment and borrowing, particularly in the early part of their term.

Shelter do calculate on a 20-year programme, and our own housing strategy looks at a 10-year programme. Anyway, if you look at Shelter, they asked Capital Economics to estimate the type of level of expenditures that would be required—this for England. The average additional borrowing per annum for that programme was calculated at £3.8 billion. If you read across to Wales, that would be £190 million. It's a substantial sum of money, but in the previous debate we were hearing about transport infrastructure and the costs there. Peak borrowing in the English programme is calculated at £5.4 billion. If you read across to Wales, that would be something like £270 million.

This is part of the new consensus that we need—that we need to borrow. I think we all have various views about how to manage austerity, but borrowing for infrastructure, which pays back—houses don't run away and people pay rent—is something that we need now to focus on. The Welsh Government would get our support in advancing these arguments as well, because borrowing for investment that's clearly needed is an intelligent thing to do. 

So, Llywydd, the Welsh Conservatives stand ready to work with the Welsh Government. This is a genuine offer, and I know that we need to replicate that success that we had after the second world war. So, let's end the petty politicking, and let's work together to meet Wales's great housing challenges. Diolch yn fawr.