I agree, and that's exactly why I described these section 106 agreements as a complete joke. That's exactly why they are a joke. 

Our point is, as well, that austerity has meant that we've seen even more of the examples that I gave in the latter example there over the past decade than we have seen of the former example, with predictable results and an ever-increasing distrust between communities and local planners. The statistics on house building show that it hasn't delivered more social housing. Now, the current planning system and the limited finance available for local authorities is simply not delivering what we need. My colleagues will elaborate on this further, but it's quite clear that relying on affordable housing commitments, or on those joke section 106 agreements with housing developers, is not delivering for us. So, we have to take the shackles off housing associations and local authorities, and we have to let them borrow substantially more to create new housing.

Borrowing for the finance of new housing is one of the least risky forms of public sector debt, and it's preferable to having our pension funds invested in, say, for example, fossil fuels. But we have to also avoid the mistakes of the past, in creating ghettos of social housing that are separate from other forms of housing. So, we are proposing an overhaul of the development of the planning process. We currently have a process of allocating sites for development, and then a laissez-faire attitude towards who builds them, and having no consideration for the kinds of public services and infrastructure required to make communities sustainable and work correctly. I keep saying section 106 agreements are a joke, and most estates remain a mess for several years, with unadopted roads and unfinished work—a nightmare for the people living around them. This is an approach that often alienates communities from the process and builds up problems in the future, especially given the long period of austerity that we've had.

So, we propose a different approach. We propose a co-operative approach to planning in which developers, housing associations and local authorities should work collaboratively on new developments and the LDP process as a whole, with both suitable locations identified and the public services required to make communities work. There will be a target for any new housing developments to have at least 40 per cent social housing. Now, by that, we don't mean 'Stick the social housing on one side of the road and the private sector housing on the other'. We mean a genuinely mixed community, supported by good public services. It's an approach that is, I'm afraid, incompatible with austerity, but one compatible with meeting the actual housing needs of Wales, not just the needs of the developers.