Diolch, Llywydd. I'm pleased to contribute to today's debate, as Chair of the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee. I'd like to thank all those who provided evidence to help inform our work, in particular tenants who attended our focus groups held right across Wales and landlords and letting agents who responded to our survey. As a committee, we continue to place a great value on lived-in experience to help inform our scrutiny. That scrutiny was paused by the pandemic, a pandemic that is shining a spotlight on the importance of having a safe and secure place to call home.

The Welsh Government has said that the heart of this Bill is the aim to improve security of tenure. Not everybody agrees this Bill will—[Inaudible.]—but, as a committee, we were convinced of the merits of this approach. We heard a range of evidence suggesting that strengthening security of tenure would have a positive impact on the well-being of those living in the private rented sector. It was also suggested that this would bring wider economic and social benefits to the community.

But, of course, not everybody agreed that this Bill was needed. Landlords and letting agents were concerned that the Bill would make letting in the private rented sector less attractive, therefore causing landlords to leave the sector and potentially place more pressure on social housing. Landlords told us they were worried they would not be able to regain possession of their property, if either their personal circumstances changed or because of contract breaches. I will come back to this point later in my remarks.

The Minister told us that she had tried to find a balance between the differing views. We believe that the correct balance has been struck, although we do call for some minor amendments, which we feel will strengthen the Bill. We therefore recommend that the Senedd supports the general principles of the Bill.

Before moving on to some of the detail from our scrutiny, it is worth noting that this is the second Bill that we have considered that seeks to amend the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, an Act that was passed five years ago by the previous Assembly but has not yet been commenced. We understand the reasons behind the delay, which were further compounded by the pandemic. The 2016 Act is a significant piece of housing law, which will change the legal framework for renting properties, and it is a change that will affect around a third of people in Wales.

We were pleased that the Minister confirmed that she intended the 2016 Act, as amended by this Bill, if this Bill is passed, would be implemented by the autumn of next year, and, obviously, the fact that there is now further slippage in that time frame is of concern, but I hear what the Minister said in that regard.

I will then move on to some specific issues within the report. In recommendation 2 we highlight a number of areas that we believe the post-implementation review of the 2016 Act must cover—all issues that came to light during our scrutiny and that arise from the implementation of the provisions with this Bill before us, rather than the broader changes in the 2016 Act—and I'm pleased to hear what the Minister had to say on that.

A common theme throughout all of our work on housing legislation in this Senedd has been a lack of data on the private rented sector, compounded by a lack of organised groups representing tenants. This makes it difficult to ensure that policy and legislation is fully informed by accurate data and lived experience. That's why we made recommendations 3 and 4, which we believe will help address both these issues and hopefully lead to improvements in policy development and implementation, and I know the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee have also made a similar recommendation around engagement with tenants. And, again, I'm pleased that the Minister has taken these matters on board.

During our scrutiny, we considered the impacts on some specific areas of the rental market, such as students and the social housing sector. One of the areas where we have recommended changes is in relation to accommodation provided as part of a minister of religion's role. We received representations from Cytûn and the Church in Wales, highlighting some very specific issues around this type of accommodation. We agreed that the Bill should be amended to ensure that properties that are housing ministers of religion in this capacity should be exempted from the provisions within the Bill, and that led to us making recommendation 5. And I'm again pleased that the Minister will be considering these matters and working to see how they can be best addressed.

The Bill does provide for a possession notice to be withdrawn within 14 days of it being issued without the landlord then having to wait a further six months before reissuing the notice. That cooling-off period is to ensure that any administrative errors in the notice do not unduly delay matters and unduly delay repossession. We heard from landlords that 14 days is not very long in terms of identifying issues on mistakes with a notice, and that's why we agreed with them and called for the period to be extended to 28 days, and, again, I'm very pleased with the Minister's response.

As far as the courts are concerned, most of our respondents highlighted the delays within the court system, which currently cause difficulties for both landlords and tenants. We accept there is not sufficient time in the current Senedd term for substantive work to be done on seeking to address these issues, but we do believe there is merit in the Welsh Government undertaking further exploratory work on the establishment of a housing court or tribunal to identify whether this will seek to address some of these issues. As the Minister reiterated today, we know that she is personally sympathetic to theses calls, but, again, I heard her remarks and explanation today, and we'll be keeping a close eye on progress on those matters.

Finally, on homelessness—I would like to touch on the impact of this Bill on homelessness. The provisions will interact with requirements on local authorities to support those who are threatened with homelessness, and that's why we made recommendations 8 and 9, to try to ensure that in the discharge of these duties local authorities are complying with the spirit of the legislation as well as the requirements in the legislation. I heard the Minister's remarks. I know that the Minister is very committed to tackling homelessness and rough-sleeping, and I think we've all been very grateful to see the progress made during the pandemic, and indeed the announcements that sustained those improvements. And I'm sure the Minister, as she said, will address these matters in that spirit, and hopefully make sure that none of that progress is lost. Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd.