4. What strategies does the Welsh Government have in place to ensure that young Welsh speakers can stay in the local community, especially in rural communities? OQ55976

Thank you, Adam. I established an economy and Welsh language round-table last year, and I've ensured that we do discuss there the challenges facing Welsh-speaking and rural communities. One of the themes that we're looking at there is the outward migration of young people, and the Arfor programme has also piloted projects targeted specifically in supporting young people to remain in their communities.

Jeremy Miles told a Senedd committee that the Government had carried out an analysis of the dual effect of COVID and Brexit on the Welsh language and rural communities, and that you, as the Government, on the basis of that assessment, have accepted that there was room for concern, particularly because of the housing crisis and the increase in the number of people from outside the areas who are buying homes. Will you publish that assessment? Can you provide a timetable for the next steps on the work done by Simon Brooks on second homes? As the housing crisis is happening now, and Carmarthenshire council, for example, has outlined some steps that could be taken immediately, can you tell us what the Government is going to do in terms of an urgent plan this side of the election?

Thank you. Of course, we, as a department, have ensured that we have undertaken a review of the impact of COVID on the Welsh language in our communities, and that will be published in the next fortnight. On top of that, Simon Brooks will be publishing his paper on second homes in the next fortnight. So, the data is there and it’s coming together and it will help us to analyse where we need to target that work.

In terms of what we’re trying to do in practice, one of the things that we’ve been discussing, in particular in working with local government in the round-table last week, is that we’re looking at, for example, procurement processes and how we can do more to use procurement in the public sector to ensure that we do increase the use of that in our communities. We want to mainstream the Welsh language and rural affairs into Welsh Government programmes, so I’ve brought in officials who have responsibility for the economy to ensure that they understand where their responsibilities are in this area. We’re also looking and we’re hoping to follow this ethos of Llwybro and focusing on the themes or specific sectors. I think that another thing that we need to emphasise is the fact that more people are now working from home, and there may be an opportunity there to try and attract more people to live in their home rural communities.

I’m pleased to hear about the round-table meetings. The crucial question is why hasn’t the Welsh Government’s economic policy led to better jobs and better paid employment in rural areas to help to keep those young people in their localities and to ensure that they can afford to purchase homes. But in order to maintain the growth of the Welsh language in the community, what assessment have you made of the use of the due regard principle on planning authorities to consider the impact of their decisions on the language? How often is that used to support growth, not only to safeguard the current foundations? For example, how many authorities have used defined local tenure conditions, which used to go alongside affordable housing targets, or sometimes were linked to them? And, also, there is this concept of Help to Buy being used for vacant properties rather than new properties.

Thank you. I think there are many things we need to consider here when it comes to housing and keeping people in our communities. It is a serious problem and it's complex. We're looking at every situation and we're hoping to see what more we can do, because we have done more here in Wales than in any other area of the UK. One of the things that we've done is to ensure that we have built 20,000 homes during this period—affordable homes that will help to keep people in their communities. And when it comes to planning, people do need to consider the impact on the Welsh language. One of the problems that there has been is that the tool to do that, to measure that, hasn't been adequate, and that's why my department has ensured that they have done a lot of work to improve that tool to ensure that we can measure that impact better.