We now turn to questions now from the party spokespeople. Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Delyth Jewell.

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, we are likely to see long-lasting changes to the housing market following COVID-19, not necessarily always for the better. People who can afford it may now want to buy large houses with open space and gardens and one that doesn't have to be as close to the office, and that could cause many people to be priced out of their communities. In our rural communities that's likely to be experienced most, yet we still don't have an action plan to stop the scandal of second home owners exploiting loopholes to avoid paying extra council tax, and we still don't have a planning system that's capable of restricting second home ownership, holiday homes or Airbnb properties. Can I ask you, Minister, when we're going to see action to reform the planning system and give local authorities teeth to ensure the post-COVID housing market works for young people and our rural communities?

Thank you, Delyth. I share your concern about pricing local people out of the market, and it's not just in rural communities, that's actually in communities across Wales, as Wales becomes a very nice place to come and live. But there are three separate issues there that your question raises, it seems to me. The first is actually people who want to come and live and work in Wales, but who can afford better houses because they're perhaps relocating from a more expensive part of the United Kingdom. But those people are coming to Wales to live and become part of our communities, they're not second home owners; they're people coming here to become part of our communities. But, nevertheless, I think it's right to say that there's some evidence at the moment—anecdotal—that they're pushing prices up, and we certainly are aware of that and we are looking at that.

The second one is the issue about people buying a second home that they themselves want to use, and you'll be aware that, during the pandemic response, we reviewed the threshold for grant assisting people, so we are now looking to see whether we can review the threshold for swapping from community tax to business rates. So, we're actively looking at that at the moment. We'll be getting information back in from our local authorities about how many people were affected by the change, and whether that has any material effect on the numbers of people who are making the flip. That's not going to change the way that they use their homes, but it does change the amount of tax that they pay and so on, so we're looking at that. And I know that the First Minister had a meeting with your colleague and mine, Siân Gwenllian, earlier today, in which they had quite a robust discussion, I believe, and we—. I know that discussion centred on a number of things that can be done to allow local people to access affordable housing in their communities. Yesterday, during my statement, I offered Llyr a meeting, and I'm more than happy to take that forward. I know the First Minister met with Siân Gwenllian this morning. So I'm suggesting that we get a small group of us together who have similar concerns, and, as I said yesterday in the statement, we're not the repository of all good ideas, so we're very happy to explore it.

I really welcome that; thank you, Minister. And I'm sure that we will certainly be very keen to work with you and to see what solutions can be found. So, thank you for your answer on that.

Now, to turn to some remarks that you made a while back—I think it was shortly after you came to the portfolio. You'd referred to new estates that had come through the planning system as potentially creating problems for the future. At the time, I know that we as a party had agreed with you, and that there are several examples of how this issue is still a problem: just down the road from where you are now in the Senedd, flats can't be sold by their owners because of a refusal by the people who built the buildings to fix issues with them; the fraud of leasehold homes that only now is being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority; and the never-ending business sites across Wales, such as that in Coity in Bridgend, where the developer keeps getting permission to build more homes because the authority, as I understand it, is powerless to use their previous poor performance as a reason to refuse future permission.

Now, it would be one thing if the system were capable of delivering affordable homes, but the planning system ensures that, if an authority gets too big for its boots, the inspector can cut the amount of affordable homes to ensure that the guaranteed profits for large developers keep coming, and profits that we believe, in Plaid Cymru, should be subject to a windfall tax. So I'd ask, Minister, when the Government is going to clip the wings of the planning inspector and tell the planning inspector directly that it is Welsh Government policy to increase affordable homes—because I know that you do want to do so—and that they should not be rebuking local authorities who try to ensure that development is in the interests of the community and not the shareholders of the developers.

Thank you, Delyth. Again, you've ranged over a couple of issues there in your questions and comments. So, on the first one, of leaseholds, we've had the Law Commission's report now, and there are a number of things there that the UK Government needs to do, but there are some things that we can do. You'll be aware that we've already moved to stop leasehold sales in anything that the Welsh Government has supported with subsidy—so, in the Help to Buy schemes, for example—and that's been very effective in doing that. We are looking at ways of assisting leaseholders with changes to the rules, and so on, around how you acquire the freehold. But we are working in conjunction with the UK Government over the Law Commission's really comprehensive report, which is being worked through—it hasn't been out that long. So I share your concern about the sale of leasehold properties.

Actually, one of the other issues—and my colleague Ken Skates has had a working group looking into this—is not just where houses are sold as leasehold, but where people buy a freehold house, but then they discover that the management of their estate is part of a company, because actually the roads haven't been adopted. So one of the things we are looking at is an adoptable standard for roads right across Wales—it varies from authority to authority at the moment—and actually increasing the arm of local authorities in being able to negotiate that those roads and sewerage and water and all the rest of it are brought up to standard and adopted as part of the 106 procedure.

Then turning to the issue around affordable homes and what can be negotiated as part of that 106 procedure, I don't quite share your analysis of where the Planning Inspectorate is, but we are very concerned that the local authority is put into a strong position in terms of negotiating what contribution is necessary from the developer, both in terms of affordable homes and actually in terms of necessary infrastructure to support the housing development. Because we also don't want to see housing developments isolated away from facilities, with no active travel, no green infrastructure, and so on. So, there are a number of things in 'Planning Policy Wales' that are advancing that. Shortly, I will be bringing forward the national development framework for Wales—next week I think it is—into the Senedd. And you'll be aware that, as part of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill, we're proposing regional arrangements to bring the strategic regional arrangements into place. All of those things will assist the local authorities in negotiating higher affordable housing targets. And the last thing I want to mention is that you'll know that we're also insisting that, on Welsh Government land—and I'm working with other public landowners to extend this—there is 50 per cent of affordable housing on all Welsh Government land that goes to housing now.

Thank you. And I know that some of this was ground that we covered yesterday, but I do welcome a lot of what you're saying. Now, as we've just seen from that exchange already, there's a lot that I think that our two parties do agree on: we agree that more affordable homes are needed throughout Wales; we agree that more social housing is needed; and that new estates should be supported by properly funded infrastructure, as you were just referring to. And we agree that they should be as estates built around the principles of active travel and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015—that they shouldn't be promoting car usage or require major changes to road networks.

But my office has seen correspondence from one planning department that ignores the remarks you made a year ago in this Chamber that the well-being of future generations Act should take precedence over local development plans produced prior to that Act. Our planning system in this regard, I'm afraid, just isn't fit for purpose. Isn't it time for the Welsh Government to take action and require planning departments to stop allowing developments devised under the old system to continue, and to ensure instead that any housing estates must be redesigned within the principles of the Welsh Government policy, regardless of when that land was first allocated for housing?

I'd be really grateful if you'd share the correspondence with me, so that I can see which authority we're talking about, because it may be that we can have an individual conversation with that authority.

The problem with the planning system—a plan-led system, which I absolutely believe in because without that you cannot have a local voice in what's allowed to be built in the local community, and I really do think that people should be allowed to have the community that they want locally—but the problem with the planning system is that it has a lag in it, because when you get planning consent you have permission to build whatever it is you've got consented for a long period of time, before it expires. And, actually, it's not possible or it's highly problematic to retrofit those consents, and that's a matter of some frustration to all of us. So, we still have new houses going up in Wales that don't have sprinklers in them because the particular development was started before that legislation.

So, in each of the improvements we've made more recently, we've tried very hard to make sure that, when the new regulation or requirement on planning comes in, it comes in almost immediately that the legislation is passed, but it is not possible to make it go backwards. So, if you've got consent, you've got consent. And that's one of the frustrations, because we do have things still being built to old spec that would not now get planning consent. So, I share your frustration. 

What we've been trying to do there though is to have a conversation with those house builders about not doing that, because they don't have to do that. They can apply to change the planning consent and we've been offering assistance with doing that. And, actually, I'm pleased to say that I met with one of the very biggest house builders most recently and they've changed their attitude completely and have been talking to me about how they might do that on some of their developments. So, it does show that if you show the way then people will come along that path with you because they can see that it's worth doing. There are some rays of light, but I share your frustration with the lag that the planning system necessarily sets up.

Conservative spokesperson, Mark Isherwood.

Diolch, Llywydd. Sorry. The Welsh Government's recently revised household projection figures show, for example, a smaller rise in Flintshire than previously projected and a fall in Wrexham, although the number of single-parent households and single-person households are still projected to increase in both.

When I wrote asking you what effect this will have on the expected future housing build figures and types within local authority local development plans or LDPs, you replied that there's not a simple correlation between the Welsh Government's household projections and local planning authorities' housing requirements as set out in LDPs, and that the projections should be considered alongside an authority's latest assessment of the need for both market and affordable housing in their area. However, councils such as Wrexham and Denbighshire have previously been forced to include higher housing figures in their LDPs based on the Welsh Government's preceding projections. How, therefore, do you expect to see the new projections reflected in developing LDP revisions?

Yes. So, as the letter points out, Mark, it's neither a target nor a guide; it is based on the statistical projections that we have. And the local authorities have a set of guidance that they are supposed to take into account around local arrangements that they should put in place to develop their LDP. You'll know that we suspended the five-year future housing projection some time ago as a result of that, because we thought that for the growing number of planning authorities in Wales who don't have an existing LDP, they were causing serious problems with speculative planning applications around their edges. So, we've assisted local authorities in doing that, and we do expect them to come forward with their own proper projections based on the local information that you've just outlined, for example, for Flintshire, although I'm not going to be making comments on individual authorities here. 

Well, I hope you're therefore confirming that if their figures conflict with yours, and that's evidence based, that that might take priority, unlike their past experience. But letters from you and your department to Flintshire council over years state, quote

'It is extremely disappointing that your authority has submitted a further request to extend the time taken to prepare your Local Development Plan, especially in the light of previous assurances.'  

The Local Authorities (Coronavirus) (Meetings) (Wales) Regulations 2020 make temporary provision for the conduct of local authority meetings safely, effectively and lawfully while retaining the principles of openness and accountability. However, concerns have been expressed to me that Flintshire is, and I quote, 'closing down its plan', and that although arrangements have been made to provide councillors with briefing sessions on the LDP, and members have asked for the conclusion to the consultation on the deposit version, they've been told that the contents and LDP statement are not up for discussion, and it appears that the officers' version will be all that is on the table. What, therefore, is your expectation as the Minister in such circumstances?

So, Mark, I'm not in a position to discuss the ins and outs of the LDP process for a particular council at this point in time, but I'd very much welcome a meeting with you separately if you want to go through specific concerns about one individual council. And you'll know that, mostly, the matters of the LDP are a matter for the council, but until you give me the specifics, I'm not able to really comment at this point on an individual council's process towards its LDP. 

Okay. Well, moving on: letters sent by your chief planner to local authority heads of planning from 27 March provided helpful guidance on how local planning authorities maintain services during the pandemic. These stated, for example, that those breaches of planning control that would merit the use of a stop notice or temporary stop notice require immediate attention from the local planning authority. Site visits in such cases are essential travel, and site visits, either in relation to posting site notices or for the purpose of assessing and analysing site conditions, including enforcement, cannot be undertaken from home, so are a reasonable excuse to travel for the purpose of the coronavirus regulations carried out in compliance with the requirements of the regulations. How, therefore, do you respond to the several constituents in Flintshire, but only in Flintshire, who have reported separate unauthorised developments, and then copied me on council responses stating that, quote,

'Within the planning service, officers were prevented from carrying site visits out to comply with Welsh Government guidance', or making equivalent statements?

Well, again, Mark, if you want to share with me the specifics of such complaints, then I'll be able to address them, but that's not something I'm able to address here from the despatch box on the floor of the Senedd. So, if you want to raise those individual issues with me outside here, I'm more than happy to look at them for you.