Diolch. These are our amendments to ensure that the law commences on 1 June 2019. This would bring the legislation in line with England, where similar legislation commences on 1 June.

Many letting agencies and landlords operate on an English and Welsh basis, so while it will be banned in England, they will undoubtedly be hiking up fees for Welsh renters if our legislation doesn't match that. What we don't want to happen is a situation where fees are banned elsewhere, but progress is slow here. 

The Welsh Government were dragged reluctantly into this legislation with several debates calling for letting agent fees to be banned being discussed in this Chamber before the Government finally acknowledged that there was a real problem here. For many of us, there remains a question mark over this Government's commitment on this question.

We've seen with many pieces of legislation in the past that progress on implementation has been slow, behind schedule, and often failing to live up to the promises that were made when it passed through here. We've seen that with many provisions in the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 of the previous Assembly, they've yet to come into force, with Shelter Cymru noting that England has not only caught up with Wales but implemented similar legislation before we have.

My final point would be this: in a citizens' assembly UK held in February, the First Minister was asked this question: 'Will you work with us to ensure that letting agents' fees are banned in Wales by the start of the 2019-20 academic year?' To which the First Minister answered, 'I'm pleased to say this is the easiest one to answer because, as you heard, there is a Bill in front of the Assembly, the Renting Homes Bill. It's being considered now and it will ban letting agents' fees in Wales. How fast the Bill gets onto the statute book is not in the hands of the Government. There is an Assembly that debates it, and we are in their hands too, but I'm optimistic that if we get on with it like we plan to get on with it, letting fees will be banned in the summer ahead of the 2019-2020 academic year.' The student union president then asked, 'I just want to confirm, the second ask, will you work with us to ensure that letting agency fees are banned for the next academic year, yes or no?' And the answer was 'yes'.

So, we've tabled this, and if the Government rejects it it will have some serious questions to answer, but if it is rejected I would like a clear commitment from the Government on the record as to when this legislation will be implemented, and that means a date. So, if not June, when?