11. Will the Minister make a statement on the progress of the Welsh Government's ministerial task-and-finish group on leasehold reform? OAQ53869

Yes, the independent task and finish group is on schedule to deliver its report and make recommendations to me this summer. It has prioritised a number of issues that will complement the work of the Law Commission and the unadopted roads taskforce.

I recently met with the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru, who are feeding into the task and finish group, together with residents of Cwm Calon estate in Penallta, Ystrad Mynach, in Caerphilly constituency. There are still a number of unresolved issues relating to the escalating estate management charges that residents are expected to pay, and I know that that is a specific area of responsibility for the task and finish group. Residents in Cwm Calon—and there are many other housing estates across Wales with these problems; Members across the Chamber will know that they have the same issues in their constituencies—want the Welsh Government to take action. Can, Minister, you tell me when precisely will the task and finish group report and can you also give the guarantee that estate management charges will be dealt with?

I can't tell him precisely when, because I don't have that information in front of me, but I know it's before the end of the summer term of the Assembly. If I have more specific information, then I will certainly let the Member know. It is a specific task of that task and finish group to look at those specific issues, and, actually, my colleague Ken Skates has also had a group looking at unadopted roads, and we've combined the two in order to make a joint statement on the overall effect, because it's not just a transport issue, as you rightly say; this is an estate management issue, it's an issue for housing developments coming forward, it's an issue about the way that we manage residential developments and so on. So, the taskforce is indeed looking at that, as we are well aware of the concerns of his residents and residents across Wales who find themselves with management fees when they thought they'd bought a freehold property and so on. So, I assure him it's very much front and centre of what we're looking at.

We are looking at a wider piece on leasehold reform as well. My predecessor in this portfolio, Rebecca Evans, established a specific sub-group to look at this and also secured an agreement from all of the major Help to Buy builders that they would not use Help to Buy to put leasehold properties on the market, and that's been very effective. But there are these other bits of the estate that we need to tie up in an appropriate fashion to ensure that people don't have a whole system of fees that they did not anticipate and that they have no control over going forward, and actually to ensure that the local authority has the ability to adopt and maintain those roads in the right fashion with the right kind of street marking and facilities and so on, and we don't have abrupt changes of a surface and all that sort of stuff as you go into the estate.

Thank you, Minister.