Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 26 May 2021.
Well, Llywydd, I don't disagree that there is a wider context within which Rhun ap Iorwerth's question has to be regarded. But he was asking very specifically about those sets of circumstances where second home ownership risks driving out of those local communities people who are priced out of being able to buy properties because there are people from further afield who have deeper pockets that they are able to apply. So, while there is a wider context, that wasn't the focus of the question put to me.
On the wider question about building more homes, this Government is committed to building 20,000 low-carbon homes for social renting purposes. What we will not be doing, Llywydd, is we will not be tearing up the protections that the planning system offers to individuals and local communities, as is proposed by his party in England. Those are important protections and we will want to see them continued here in Wales. So, while we build more houses, which are necessary in the way that the Welsh Government's calculations have set out, we do it in a way that properly balances the needs for new housing against the protections that local communities properly have, to make sure that their futures too can be safeguarded.