We will support these regulations and support the fact that the Welsh Government didn't emulate the changes to stamp duty announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for England. We note that the threshold for LTT is to increase only for main residential properties. We see the value of doing this under the current circumstances as an economic stimulus. And, of course, we do understand that one of the implications of restricting the threshold to the main residence only is to not provide subsidies to those people who would want to use this as an opportunity to buy a second home. We know that there has been recently some strengthening in the feeling within communities in Wales, such as in my constituency, where there is a high percentage of second homes and holiday homes, that steps do need to be taken to prevent the loss of further housing stock to those purchasing second homes. 

Plaid Cymru announced in the past few days a series of steps to tackle this, including changes to planning regulations, capping the number of second homes within any community, making it a requirement to have planning consent to turn a main residence into a second home, and so on and so forth. But we do also need to use tax incentives. We recommend raising council tax for second homes, and certainly to close the loopholes that have allowed some to opt out of paying council tax entirely. I appeal to the Government here once again to tackle that issue. But we are also calling for land transaction tax to be used in a more far-reaching way—trebling it is a step that the Government could take immediately. These regulations in truth don't go far enough, in my view and in Plaid Cymru's view. I still don't see the urgency that I would like to see from the Welsh Government on the issue of second homes and safeguarding the housing stock in our communities. But at least what we are voting for today is something that recognises the problem, but let us do far more, let us take real action, because our communities expect us to take steps to safeguard their interests.