As a number of contributors have also said, the pandemic has impacted on how we see and value our homes. We spend more time in our homes, working as well as living and relaxing there. Home has been for many of us, the lucky ones, our haven during these difficult times. And for some, the option to relocate to a second home has also been inviting, however we can see the tensions that that has caused in some communities, resurfacing long-held concerns about affordability, access to housing for local people and sustainability of communities whose populations grow and shrink significantly according to season.

These communities often thrive thanks to the visitor economy, but of course we need to strike the right balance between that economy and the communities that host it. A vibrant community needs jobs and its people need homes; it needs sustainable infrastructure and a sense of place. This Welsh Government is proud of its placemaking. Only this morning I launched the new placemaking charter for Wales, which enshrines our approach to sustainable communities across Wales and works with our partners across the industry and across the regulatory sector to make achieving more sustainable communities the enshrined goal across Wales. And achieving that of course means balancing permanent homes and those occupied for part of the year or let as businesses.

We need all community members, whether full or part-time, to contribute fairly, and we need to ensure that local people are not priced out of local housing. This Government has made permanent affordable homes accessible across Wales a priority and I'm very proud of our record of a £2 billion investment in housing. We are on track to deliver our 20,000 additional affordable homes during this term—we were on track to do more than that, but, of course, the pandemic has had some effect—and within that figure homes for social rent make up the largest proportion, but we've also helped people buy their own homes through Help to Buy and through rent to own.

Increasing the supply of affordable homes will help local people struggling to stay local because of high property prices and rents in their community. Members will many times have heard me say that I share the concern that local people cannot—local young people in particular—stay in the communities in which they grew up to make their lives and their families. So, it's important that we have a sharp focus on increasing the supply of housing but also getting the balance right is vital. It's also important that second home owners make fair contributions to the communities in which they buy and do not price local people out of the market. As I've said, being unable to work and live in the area you've grown up in is not how we see a future Wales. It's a problem that we have across Wales in a large number of our communities; it's not just confined to the north and west. We have very beautiful communities across Wales and they are increasingly attractive to people, and we should be rightly proud of that.

I also entirely agree with Mike Hedges that the situation—and others, actually; he brought it up first—is not helped where properties stand empty. We've encouraged, equipped and funded local authorities to use their powers to ensure that's not the case. Indeed, again, only this week we initiated a new training programme for local authorities and next month fresh guidance will be issued on the use of compulsory purchase orders to ensure councils can exercise them where needed. We also have a number of schemes to assist home owners to bring houses back into use, either for their own use or to hand them over to social landlords in order to increase our social house supply. And, Llywydd, I have many times mentioned these schemes in the Senedd; I'm just drawing people's attention to them. I can talk, as you know, for at least an hour on any one of those schemes, so I won't try your patience by doing so.

We're also aware of the major contribution of the visitor economy. Our new tourism strategy, 'Welcome to Wales: 2020—2025', recognises its economic importance. Crucially, it also acknowledges that in parts of Wales there is potential for over-tourism and that we need to grow tourism in ways that benefit Wales, listening to residents, visitors and businesses. We've started those conversations and have already instigated a number of ways to help achieve that proper balance.

The foundational economy, too, is particularly important to communities that are more reliant on tourism and recognises that many of the challenges raised in this debate cannot be solved just through the housing supply alone. There are large numbers of other concerns, especially jobs, distributed infrastructure and so on that need to be taken into account.

In terms of tax and fair contribution, we've taken a distinct position. Unlike other UK administrations, the Welsh Government did not provide a temporary tax reduction for buy-to-let investors, investors in furnished holiday lets or buyers of second homes. July's temporary reduction to the residential land transaction tax rates raised the starting threshold from £180,000 to £250,000. Consequently, around 80 per cent of Welsh homebuyers pay no tax, up from 60 per cent for the £180,000 threshold. However, second home buyers in Wales pay higher rates of land transaction tax compared to homebuyers, paying 3 per cent on top of each rate that a homebuyer would pay. This temporary change does not apply to residential transactions subject to the higher rates of LTT, and that ensures that the reduction is targeted at homebuyers who may need additional support to buy their homes in these uncertain economic times, and it is not available to second home buyers and buy-to-let investment properties. That contrasts with the UK and Scottish Governments, who have provided tax reductions on the purchase of such properties as part of the temporary changes to property transaction tax. It also reflects our active commitment to a progressive regime that expects those with the broadest shoulders to contribute the largest share in tax. That includes those in a position to be able to purchase more than one residential property. And I should say, Llywydd, after the conversation about who owns what, that I do not own a second residential property or any other property. I still have a mortgage on my own home.

We very much need to make sure that we build the right kinds of housing across Wales, and I'll just remind Members that, of course, we directed £30 million of the money available for the land transaction tax to phase 2 of our homelessness programme, making sure that it goes towards building many more social homes for rent. Wales is also the only nation to give local authorities a chance to charge a premium of up to 100 per cent on council tax rates to second homes. At present, eight authorities are charging premiums ranging from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. None are applying the maximum premium available, and in the absence of further evidence and consultation, I'm not convinced, given that they aren't charging even the maximum that we currently allow, that doubling that premium is a good thing. From a tax perspective, it's also important to assess the evidence from viewing how tax supports communities across Wales. LTT, for example, brings significant revenue to the Welsh Government, revenue spent on providing public services in Wales. We also explore a future permissive power for local authorities to enact a tourism tax, so tourists can contribute directly to costs borne by local authorities as a result of the tourism there.

But we will not reconcile the issues and interests through tax alone. We also have the rural strategic group for rural housing, because we know that rural areas have particular housing challenges that centre mainly on high house prices to income ratios, and low levels of affordable housing delivery. Rural areas have many different needs, and each area has its own unique challenges and opportunities, and therefore we lead a rural strategic group which consists of rural housing enablers, housing associations, local authorities, Community Housing Cymru and the Welsh Local Government Association. It meets quarterly and provides a forum to exchange and test ideas and share good practice. And you can see from the range of things that we're doing that we do not think that there are any easy answers or quick fixes, and a number of contributors acknowledged that. I'm really keen to understand the various views, application and effect of current powers and take account of the evidence. We need to strike the right balance between the valuable role of the visitor economy, people's rights to enjoy property, access to affordable housing that sustains and energises our communities, and the contribution that all tenures of home ownership make and should make to our communities.

The Welsh Government certainly has the will and appetite to engage across the piece to take forward that work and further assessments of options and their impact, and I will willingly work with Members, and I started my speech by saying, 'Llywydd, that I will willingly work with Members across the Senedd to that end. And, indeed, I'm in the process of arranging meetings with a number of Members who have already come forward to do just that. And therefore, Members, I ask you to support the Government amendment, which provides a sufficiently broad base from which to achieve all that. Diolch.