I speak as the Member who represented the Conservative group on the Stage 1 proceedings, and subbed on to the equality and local government committee for that purpose, but I'm no longer the housing spokesperson, and my colleague Mark Isherwood will speak officially for the group later.

Can I say that I'm very pleased to agree the general principles of this Bill? I think, with other measures that have been referred to, it should provide a stronger and more efficient market for the private rented sector in particular, and it seeks to strike a balance between tenants—who are now often called 'generation rent'—and landlords. And generation rent, if I can take that to mean people in the private rented sector, is now something like 20 per cent of the population in housing terms, which is really quite a remarkable shift from the 1980s, when much of the law that we have sought to reform during this Senedd was first enacted to revive, really, the rental sector, which had gone into the doldrums through over-control at the time. So, it is a rebalancing; it's happening in England, it's happening in Scotland, and that's why, when I was the Conservative spokesperson—and a policy that continues—the Conservative group was pleased to broadly support these reforms to the rental sector. And can I say what a pleasure it was to work with the equality and local government committee and the Members—it was very constructive—and, more recently, I've also been on the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, and, again, I'm pleased with the diligence that's been applied to this Bill. And I indeed note, as others have, the similar recommendations in some respects between those two committees.

I do want to make some specific points, but let me just say first of all that I think the consolidation of housing law is something much to be desired. We know the Welsh Government is committed to consolidating law. It has been one of the things we thought that the Senedd could do, or start to do, when it acquired primary lawmaking powers, and ensure that we didn't have the sort of cluttered statute book that exists in other jurisdictions, and that housing was a really good area of public law to start with, because it's so important in terms of people's lives, but also it was law that needed reforming and it is very systematic; they relate to each other. This Bill actually amends a 2016 Act, so An act of the fourth Assembly, as we've heard, which will not actually be commenced until the sixth Senedd. I do think it's a bit of a record for something to be passed in a fourth Parliament and not to be enacted—commenced, rather—until a sixth Parliament, and it is really not very good practice, even—. I mean, there are some reasons in COVID to explain the extension to this inordinate delay, but most of the inordinate delay has been caused by other factors, which I think the Welsh Government should have been more attentive about. But, anyway, that's a sour note and I want to be mostly positive in my remarks. 

If I can turn to the Stage 1 committee report, I would highlight the following: the need for better data of the private rented sector again has already been referred to, and I'm pleased the Minister has accepted that recommendation. As I said, it's 20 per cent of housing now, and we do just need better data and we need better liaison with private sector tenants. We have excellent connections over many decades with those in the social sector, and it's a harder sector—it's more fragmented, the private sector tenants—but we need to get better evidence from them. The Bill does need to have certain improvements made, and I'm sure my colleague Mark Isherwood might speak to some of this as well, but we would have pushed very strongly for the extension of the withdrawal and then reissue notice that landlords have to apply from 14 to 28 days, but I'm delighted the Minister's actually accepted that recommendation and so, presumably, there won't be a need for our own amendment on that. 

So, I do think, finally, as this completes a series of reforms to the private rented sector, that, as we've moved from no-fault evictions, in effect, to evictions for a cause, the landlord's right to an effective process is really important. And that's why the two committees have made this point about the need for landlords to be able to access efficient and low-cost procedure, and possibly that would best be done via housing tribunal. And I do hope that will be seriously looked at in the sixth Senedd, which I will not be a Member of, but I would urge Members who are elected to that to look at that particular part, because it is part of the balancing, and landlords do have a right to reclaim their property and there must be a process that's efficient for them to do so when there is cause.