The next item is a statement by the Minister for Climate Change on affordability, second homes and the Welsh language, and I call on the Minister to make her statement. Julie James. 

Diolch, Llywydd. There has been considerable coverage and debate over recent months about second homes and, beyond that, affordable housing for young people in Wales. We are keenly aware of the challenges being faced and have already made clear strides towards addressing these. However, we can and will do more. In undertaking this work, we have listened to and acted on calls from communities across Wales. We have held cross-party discussions, and our clear determination to address the challenges being faced is reflected in our programme for government and in ministerial commitments.

We have welcomed the excellent work and clear recommendations from Dr Simon Brooks in his report, 'Second homes: developing new policies in Wales'. Indeed, the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language and I have written to Dr Brooks, setting out our response and outlining our next steps. Llywydd, this is a Government determined to take real and ambitious action, and today I am setting out our three-pronged approach to addressing the challenges facing our communities.

Much of the second home debate has focused on a number of our Welsh-speaking communities, chiefly in rural and coastal parts of the country. We know there is a real and serious linguistic dimension to this challenge. It's one that cuts across our commitment to Cymraeg 2050 and the critical importance of ensuring the vitality of Welsh as a community language. As well as significant linguistic considerations, a core part of the issue being faced is affordable housing in general, and not just in Wales, but in many parts of the UK and indeed beyond.

Building on our outstanding success in the last term, when we exceeded our affordable homes target, our programme for government reflects this continued commitment to deliver 20,000 new homes across Wales. Crucially, these will be low-carbon properties for rent in the social sector. In support of this commitment, we have almost doubled our financial investment this year—an ambitious and profoundly significant investment by any reckoning, and one that will offer a clear, tangible benefit to local people and to their communities. 

We are also committed to developing effective tax, planning and housing measures to ensure that the interests of local people are protected. And we are not turning away from our distinct position on land transaction tax for second home purchases. In all of this, we will protect the particular interests of our Welsh language communities through a Welsh language communities housing plan, while retaining a hold on affordability across all communities in Wales.

The three-pronged approach is the start of real and concerted action to fairly manage second homes over this Senedd term, while also ensuring everyone has access to good-quality and affordable housing. First, support: to address issues of affordability, we will target and tailor our existing housing programmes across tenures. In doing this, we will draw on experiences of rolling out successful programmes such as homebuy, and promoting the sort of creative solutions we have seen in many parts of Wales. Over this coming summer, my officials will put together a package that we can start to trial. We’ll evaluate it thoroughly so that we can be assured it makes a clear, quantifiable difference.

Secondly, our regulatory framework and the system. To address the issue of second homes, we will provide for better management of additional second homes and short-term holiday lets through changes to the regulatory framework and system. Parts of the system need to change, and we will change them. We will establish a statutory registration scheme for all holiday accommodation, including short-term lets. We will consider the legal complexities of how we can test changes to the planning system, and I am also determined that all systems either in place or explored will champion social justice.

And third, a fairer contribution, so that national and local taxation systems ensure that second home owners make a fair and effective contribution to the communities in which they buy. As part of this work, we are looking very closely at circumstances in which certain properties can be transferred to the non-domestic rating list and, as a result, be sometimes liable for neither council tax nor non-domestic rates. That simply cannot be right and we will bring forward proposals to address this scenario. We know that second home owners can and often do support local economies and we cherish our reputation as a welcoming society. It is important though that all in Wales make a fair contribution. That is why we are reviewing local tax arrangements and, over the summer, we will bring forward options for consultation.

None of this is straightforward of course, which is something Dr Brooks also recognises. However, that will not deter us. We will pilot our approaches, working with partners, over the summer. We have already received one offer to take part in a pilot and I have written to invite further scoping discussions. Our actions in this area represent bold, cross-Government working. Ministers across the Welsh Government have been and will continue to be involved. We have established a cross-portfolio task group, and will continue our dialogue across parties. As I have said previously, no one party has the monopoly on good ideas.

Over the summer we will work with stakeholders to agree the basis and location or locations for an evaluated pilot; develop a coherent and effective support package to trial within the pilot; begin to develop a statutory registration scheme for all holiday accommodation and continue to engage with stakeholders on the shape of the model we will implement, including both the registration and inspection arrangements. We will consult on possible changes to local taxes to support local authorities in managing the impact of second homes and self-catered accommodation, and we will establish a draft Welsh language communities housing plan for consultation in the autumn. I hope that Members will support us as we get to work on this challenging but very important issue. Diolch, Llywydd.

I'll start off my contribution by just saying how disappointed, yet again, I am as a returned Member of this Senedd. I am part of your task group. Mabon and I have met with you, as Plaid Cymru and Welsh Conservatives, for two sessions now, and yet here we are, we find that the announcement was broken to the press yesterday. And Llywydd, I would just ask—. This is becoming quite an important issue. Members—new Members in particular—are saying to me, 'Is this how it works in the Senedd?', and I say, 'No, it isn't.' So, I would just ask all Ministers to work with their officials and ensure that, when we do return in September, such important business as this is conducted here, with respect to our elected Members, and not done through the media. Diolch.

Now, clearly, this is too important an issue for us to do any petty political squabbling, so I want to see us genuinely working across the board. And it's fair to say that the report by Dr Simon Brooks does make for some interesting reading, and it does raise some important points, including that

'there is little evidence that second homes are the main cause of high house prices as opposed to buyers moving to these areas to reside there' permanently; having fewer second homes would not change the fact that local buyers have to compete with buyers from outside the area; an expansion of housing stock without due diligence would be bound to encourage significant population movement from other parts of the UK to linguistically sensitive areas; and local people are unable to compete in the housing market against buyers from outside the community.

So, if this Senedd is truly committed to co-operating cross-party on the housing crisis, I ask you, Minister, once again to agree to restoring the right to buy in Wales and reinvesting those sale proceeds. For every one house sold, three new units can be built. Do you agree with me that by acting on the finding by Dr Brooks that second homes are in fact a regional and a local problem— they're not necessarily a national problem—we could pursue the right to buy and reinvestment of sale proceeds in the wards most significantly impacted by second homes and, in doing so, create more homes for our locals? Our right-to-buy solution would be such a huge benefit to areas like Abersoch and Aberdaron, which have an income to house price affordability ratio of 10.7:1.

Following the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, local authorities have the right to charge a local tax premium of up to 100 per cent on second homes. Local authorities have been extremely hesitant to increase premiums, and there are justifiable reasons for this. There's this complete underacknowledgement of the benefits that some of our holiday homes, our second homes, contribute to our local economies. Certainly in Aberconwy, they provide jobs, they provide support for our economy, and I'm totally against these high premiums. So, will you explain why you think using further national and local taxation systems will be effective in combating the impact of second homes? We all want more detail as to what taxation measures you have in mind, but I don't believe that this is an issue you can simply tax your way out of.

You know what I said behind the scenes in our meetings: I believe that now it's time we worked across the whole industry and sector. We need to work with our landlords and our tenants; we need to work with our housing providers, the registered social landlords, the private sector landlords, and we need to work with those in the holiday-let industry. People have been vilified, almost, now for having a second home, and I know in my own constituency, the number—. I had a housing mini-conference on Friday, where I was told categorically by those working in the industry that there are now fewer homes available, because people are withdrawing from the sector in favour of Airbnbs, in favour of holiday lets. I think we need to actually look at this with a very multifaceted approach. And I think also we've got to just tone down some of the hostile language I'm hearing in this debate—not by you, I might add, as a Government.

I'm happy to work with you, very keen to work with you; I want to ensure that our locals have that accommodation that they so badly need, but as I say, it's not going to be solved overnight. I think Dr Simon Brooks has made that point: it's going to take time to turn that big ship around. We need to start, but those conversations need to start cross-party across this Senedd. Diolch, Llywydd.

Thank you very much, Janet. On the media points, I take your point; I want to make very certain that Members of the Senedd have the information first, so we've taken some pains to make sure that Members of the Senedd have the copy of the letter going back to Dr Simon Brooks today and that spokespeople had the oral statement early on. I take the point entirely, so we will certainly work with the cross-party group on that.

There are some real complexities here, aren't there? So, one of the big things that we want to be able to do is work with everyone to understand what the definitions of these various terms are. A second home, a home that's occupied by somebody who isn't from the community, a home that's occupied by somebody that works in the community but returns somewhere else at the weekend, a home that's partly occupied by somebody and partly let out; there is a vast number of different ways of doing this. So, some of the issues are definitional, and I certainly do not want to put anyone into the vilified space. Everyone makes a contribution, we just need to ensure that it's a fair contribution.

I don't agree with you on the right to buy. There are a whole host of issues around right to buy, not least that we haven't got enough social housing, so selling some of it off doesn't make any sense. But also, of course, the only way that people can afford to buy the social homes they live in is to buy them at substantial discounts, and the discount price does not produce enough money to build the next lot of social homes. I think you're severely underestimating, unfortunately, how much money that actually takes. So, there are real issues with that.

What we do need to do is make sure that we build enough social homes for rent so that people who want them can have them, and so I think we are agreed on that part of it. I am, of course, very determined to do that, and to make sure that we build them in the right place, for the right community access to those social homes as well. We have the housing crisis we've discussed in this Senedd a number of times now, Llywydd, which would take—. Each one of them is a debate in its own right. But I'm very happy to engage across party on a number of solutions to that.

The last thing I want to say is just on the issue of working with the landlords. We are determined to put a registration scheme in place for holiday lets. Some of the issues are that it's more difficult to be a permanent landlord than it is to be a temporary one, so that needs to be addressed, and we need to be sure that people are adhering to the right standards and the right tax regimes and all the rest of it. So, we will be doing that, and I'm very happy, Janet, to work with you to make sure that that's both proportionate and produces the results that we both want.

Thank you very much, Minister, for this statement. I also want to put on record how disappointed I was to see that this statement had been made public to the media yesterday evening, and that you were in St David's filming yesterday, and that we'd heard nothing about it until today. But I trust that that will not happen again.

If I could first of all look at the statement in general terms, as you've mentioned, this Senedd has already passed a motion stating that there is a housing crisis. You'll remember us doing that some three weeks ago, and in fairness, you as a Government didn't oppose that motion—in fact, you supported it. The second homes crisis is just one symptom of a far deeper crisis that is facing communities the length and breadth of Wales. It means that people from Anglesey to Monmouthshire can't afford to buy homes in their own communities. I mentioned in that debate some weeks ago that this is a result of a housing market run wild, and Government after Government that fear intervention in the market to ensure that houses are homes rather than a financial investment or a luxury status symbol to be enjoyed occasionally.

But now to the details of your statement. I'm pleased to see the statement providing a little more detail than what was put forward in the media. I welcome the fact that there is recognition at last that there is a problem facing our communities—in this case, Welsh-speaking communities. But the pledges, and the commitment to further consultation, half promises and further delay, do lead one to think that the Government doesn't really appreciate the real gravity of the situation. It's not a problem, it's a crisis.

The statutory registration scheme for all holiday accommodation is to be welcomed. At last we will have improved data and detailed information as to who is actually running a legal business and who is trying to play the system. This could assist us in trying to close the loophole that enables people to convert their housing to business rates. I welcome the fact that you have committed to looking at that loophole. But in order to save you from wasting any more time on consultation yet again, I will inform you right now that the Association of Accounting Technicians has already looked at this issue, and has made recommendations to the Westminster Government, and the Westminster Government, under the Conservatives in England, is looking to close this very loophole already. So, why won't you take action on this immediately?

You mentioned trialling change of use within planning in order to create a new section for short-term lets. Well, why trial this? We don't need a pilot period. There is already precedent in place for this with homes in multiple occupation. We don't need new legislation, we don't need to waste any more time looking at piloting things. You must be brave and take action. Will you, therefore, commit to taking action on this as soon as possible?

More concerning yet is the ambiguity in your words in talking about trialling a new section for second homes, because you are talking about looking at the potential of trialling such a programme within planning regulations. Don't waste any more time. I know that there are concerns and doubts about this policy, but learn from other nations. Governments in Switzerland are taking action on this already, and are doing so successfully. Will you reach out to nations such as Switzerland to learn those lessons from them? The time has come to take considered steps in favour of our communities and those people who have elected us. You will get our support to take action. Some of our communities have been lost and others are on their knees. I urge you to take action. We don't need to consider the potential or conduct further pilots. Nefyn town council has already opened the door to you. Take that opportunity to work with them and other communities who are crying out for support.

Finally, I am pleased to see that you are talking about looking at land transaction tax, but again, there is no clear commitment. The experiences of other nations demonstrate clearly that increasing similar taxes on the purchase of second or third homes is an assistance and does ensure some control of the market. Do something about it. You can do this without even making any changes to legislation. We don't need any further delay. House prices are shooting up before our very eyes, and young people are having to leave their communities or live in second-class accommodation. Unless you take steps to take action now, then we will see more communities lost, and more people moving from their communities. We have no time to waste. Take action now. Thank you.

Diolch, Mabon. I understand the passion that you bring to this and the frustration of people who aren't in Government about the reason that we have to pilot and consult on things, but the reason is because we must consult on changes to the rules; otherwise we will be judicially reviewed, and the process will slow right down. So, I share your frustration, but we must consult on it. We must make sure that we have a range of views in place and that it's a genuine consultation. We will certainly be consulting on the changes to the planning rules. 

One of the things I particularly want to have a look at, though, is whether we have to have a one-size-fits-all. It's a particularly complex part of planning law, but I would very much like to—. Well, we're taking advice on whether we can have particular planning rules in particular communities, which are not necessary elsewhere in Wales, and so we don't have to force particular change-of-use-type arrangements on areas that don't need to have that kind of control, particularly, for example, in inner cities and so on, where there's a completely different, although equal, problem with the sort of issues that we're looking at.

In terms of affordability, there are a range of issues with affordability and the increasing number of homes that are outside the affordability bracket of local people. They aren't all about second homes. Some of them are around things around the lending regime, for example. It's not at all uncommon in my constituency for people to come to me who have paid rent substantially more than they would have to pay on a mortgage over a long period of time, only to find that that doesn't count for anything for their financial status, and their inability to pull a deposit together, unless they have the bank of mum and dad to help them out, is just prohibitive. So, they can never get on that first step, despite the fact that they have quite clearly been able to afford a rent of much greater than the mortgage payment for a very long time. So, we need to work with schemes like Help to Buy and with our lenders to make sure that we have areas where we can help local people get together the financial wherewithal to buy the homes that they want to buy. So, it's not just about the sheer cost of the most expensive homes.

One of the ways that we are looking to do that is with the community land trust that I spoke to yesterday in Solva, where we have a shared equity scheme, effectively, so that people can get a foot on the ladder, they can get a bit of the developing value of the house that they live in, but they don't have the right to sell it on to anyone they like at a vast profit; they can take their equity out and move on if they want to. I'm really keen to look at schemes of that sort across Wales. One of the big issues with planning is that you can, very frequently, control the first sale but not the subsequent ones. So, we can control the sale of the house as a main house on the first occasion that it is sold; it's very difficult to do that for the fourth sale. And so, one of the things we're looking to do is to make sure that we retain that house as a local house forward into the future, and that has proven much more difficult to do right across the world. And I can assure you, Mabon, that I most certainly am looking at international examples of this, but unfortunately, so far, they're all showing the same issues—the first one is fine and subsequent ones are much more problematic. So, we'll be looking to see what we can do to ensure that. I'm very keen on having a sort of golden share, a public share, in that that prevents the sale onwards to anybody you feel like at any price you like, and retains that house in local ownership. But that, of course, is a compromise on the owner-occupier-type arrangement that we're familiar with across Britain. So, we will be looking to see what we can do to pilot some of that.

We are not the repository of all the good information; I'm very happy to work cross-party with you, both in public and in working groups behind the scenes to make sure that we explore all of the good ideas. Several good ideas have been put forward already around social partnerships, social enterprises, taking control of particular holiday let arrangements and so on that I'm very keen to explore as well. What I'm trying to demonstrate here, Llywydd, is that we're very open to looking at a range of solutions that will be different for each community in Wales, because each community has a different problem; they're not all the same. We do have one community that has put itself forward as a pilot, but we have only the one at the moment. So, if Members of the Senedd want to encourage communities in their areas to come forward and pilot some of these arrangements, I'd be more than happy to speak to them very promptly to get that up and running.

Llywydd, I will, at some point in the future, come to the Senedd floor and set out the issue with how long it takes us to get various pieces of legislation in. I do think people out there in Wales need to understand some of the constraints, because it's very frustrating to have the call to action, knowing that it's actually impossible to deliver in that short period of time that people really want to see.

I'm very pleased that we have had this statement today. We have too few houses, we have too few affordable houses. House prices have increased due to a shortage of accommodation, but also Government policies such as Help to Buy and the land transaction tax holiday have pushed up prices. The biggest housing shortages are in Cardiff and Swansea and I refer the Minister to the council house waiting lists of both those cities. It's obvious to me that we need more council housing. The only time, post war, when housing supply equalled housing demand was when large-scale council housing was taking place and we had council housing available, and previously privately rented accommodation was available for owner occupation. It was a win-win situation. We've gone into no council housing—or very few council houses—being built and lots of privately rented accommodation. A lose-lose situation. Whilst the longer term solution is building more council houses, there are short-term solutions. Will the Welsh Government end business rates relief on houses and treat all houses as liable to council tax? Finally, why does the Welsh Government think that a pilot project will not just produce displacement rather than a change in the actions of people?

Thank you very much, Mike. Your long commitment to pushing Governments to build more council and social housing is well known and recognised. And you're absolutely right: one of the biggest problems we've got in the housing crisis across Wales is the number of people in temporary or substandard accommodation, for which we absolutely do need to build, at scale and pace, the social housing that we vitally need across Wales. We also need to make sure that it's built in the right places. There is a crying need for a very large scale in some areas of Wales, but there is a need for a scale of council housing right across Wales, sometimes in small envelopes in little villages where people need to stay, sometimes in bigger envelopes in cities where people have a crying need to have a decent home.

We also need to work with our private rented sector landlords, many of whom work very happily alongside us, to make sure that their housing is brought into play as well. I commend to Members across the Chamber—as I always do—the scheme where we allow private rented sector landlords to give their houses over to us so that we can afford those houses for social tenants whilst we bring the house back up to the standard that people are entitled to expect in the private rented sector—a win-win situation, as indeed you say, Mike.

We have a number of issues that we want to take forward. On the business rates thing, I've already said in answer to a previous speaker that we will be putting a consultation out about exactly what the level of business rate flip should be allowed to be, whether the small business rate relief should apply and whether it should be allowed at all, of course. There are issues with genuine holiday lets, built as holiday lets, whether they're run by businesses or run by companies; if they're having to pay domestic council tax, they might have problems. So, we do need to make sure that we get this right across the piece. And, of course, the registration scheme for holiday lets will come into play there as we have people register either as private sector landlords or as registered holiday let operatives, and we can see what comes out of that. So, I'm very keen on that.

We've been in a very good place in Wales, because we have Rent Smart Wales working with our private sector landlords. We've had a wealth of information and a good relationship with our landlords as a result of that, which is the envy of Governments elsewhere in the UK. I'd look to have something very similar in the holiday let sector. We've already had a couple of really good meetings with Airbnb, who are one of the biggest operators in that sector. They're pushing a registration scheme in a number of countries at the moment, so we're keen to build on their expertise as well.

But, broadly, Mike, I agree with you: the actual way out of the housing crisis is to build the amount of social homes that we increasingly need right across Wales, and to ensure that it's not a rationing system but a system that's accessible to everyone who wants that kind of home.

Thank you, Minister, for your statement. As someone representing a hugely attractive area of west Wales, where houses for first-time buyers are scarce, I welcome the fact that this is a three-pronged approach. While I don't agree with each one unconditionally, I'm pleased that it's not a single, sledgehammer policy, which could end up causing far more harm than good. We also can't underestimate the enormous economic benefits that the domestic holiday industry brings, with Pembrokeshire topping a recent list of the most popular destinations for British holidaymakers, with people enjoying a warm welcome to holiday cottages across the county.

I'm interested in the Welsh language community housing plan that you mentioned in your statement, and I ask whether there's any further information on this plan. As with all consultation, this needs to be as far-reaching as possible, and I hope the views of all those who contribute are given serious consideration in the consultation's conclusion, and that this isn't just a box-ticking exercise. Secondly, you mentioned developing a statutory registration scheme for all holiday accommodation, including short-term lets. Can I ask who will manage these registrations, Minister? Will it fall on the local authorities, and, if so, will they be funded accordingly, or will the cost fall onto the owners of the holiday accommodation, with the charge reflecting the number of properties? Diolch.

Thank you very much for that series of questions and for the support that you indicated at the beginning. In terms of the Welsh language communities housing scheme, that's in the portfolio of my friend and colleague Jeremy Miles, who's sitting opposite me today. He proposes to bring forward a draft scheme for consultation very shortly, so I won't steal his thunder in taking up time on that right now.

In terms of the registration scheme, we are working, as I say, with Airbnb, as the biggest provider of these kinds of schemes. One of the things we'll be consulting on is what shape should the scheme have—that's hard to say, 'what shape should the scheme have'—and who should be responsible for administering it. One of the possibilities is to do it the way we do Rent Smart Wales, through a lead local authority that we fund, obviously, to do that. But, there are other available options and we'll be consulting on that, as well as the exact nature of the registration scheme, how you register and all of the rest of it, when we do that consultation. I'm very happy to take the views of Members of the Senedd as well through the cross-party working arrangements.

In terms of the value of the tourist pound, I couldn't agree more. My family has been going to Pembrokeshire for our holidays for 30 years. We go and we rent a cottage down there from a lady whom I've known for many years. We absolutely want to do that. We take great pains to be friendly and hospitable when we are there in our turn, and to spend our Swansea pound in Pembrokeshire, as we ought to when we're enjoying the countryside.

This isn't an exercise in making Wales an unwelcoming or inhospitable place—far from it. What we need to do is make sure that we have sustainable communities that can thrive with our tourist industry, because the tourist industry itself needs the people locally to be living there in order to be able to take the jobs and service the tourist industry itself. These are not things that are in conflict with one another; these are things that are in harmony with one another. We just need to make sure, as a Government, that we put the platforms in place to make sure that that is a harmonious whole, and not a disjointed whole, which I think we're seeing at the moment.

Plaid Cymru has played a constructive role in pressing the Welsh Government to take action in order to support communities that are suffering as a result of the impact of second homes. Unfortunately, this announcement today is very disappointing and weak. We don't have a plan here, but three headlines, which are short, vague and lacking detail. Consulting and pilot schemes won't help young people who need a home and who are being priced out of their communities now.

Will you please put aside the idea of a commission to discuss second homes? We don’t need a commission; there are practical issues that can be implemented at once. For example, talking about a registration scheme for holiday lets, making it statutory to register a holiday let is not going to get to the core of the problem, so why don’t you put a licensing scheme in place at once, as exists in other countries, and then it would be possible to cap the number of second homes in pressurised communities? With registration only, won’t you be just creating unnecessary bureaucracy in truth, without having a genuine impact on the situation? And could I ask about the work that will happen over the summer? Will you commit to coming back to the Senedd before the end of September with a clear plan, including specific action and an urgent timetable for action from October onwards?

So, taking those in reverse order then, Siân, absolutely, we will be coming back to the Senedd in the autumn term to feed back on the stuff that we’ve done over the summer—the consultation and so on—and to involve Senedd Members. We’ll also be carrying on meeting with the cross-party group behind the scenes all the way through the summer and into the autumn as well to make sure that we’re picking up all the issues there.

I think the registration scheme and the licensing scheme have got conflated there, but they’re actually pretty separate. I think there is merit in a registration scheme. First of all, it enables us to understand exactly what the problem is, and secondly it makes people who want to do Airbnb really think about what they’re doing, and actually there are issues around standards and so on. You’ll know the big issues with a local family B&B having to comply with all the standards and so on as against a local Airbnb that doesn’t have to comply with the standards, and all of the issues that go alongside that. So, there are some real serious issues around this, which is why Airbnb are very keen themselves on having these kinds of registration schemes.

In terms of a licensing scheme, we’re exploring that also. That is very similar to the schemes that those of us who have big universities in our patches will be aware of for student houses in multiple occupation. That isn’t a silver bullet, I have to tell you as a person who has a very large proportion of my constituency given over to student HMOs, even though we have a licensing scheme in place. That brings with it some of its own problems. So, what we want to do is learn from those problems and make sure we don’t duplicate them in this sector. But I’m very determined that we will have a scheme that allows local authorities to limit the number of vacant houses, if you like. Some definitional problems, which I went into in an earlier response, Llywydd, come into play here, but we’re very keen to have that scheme in place so we can have caps, if you like, on the number of houses that are not permanently occupied. It's been very difficult on the HMO side to roll it back if it’s already gone above the cap. So, we will be exploring options to roll back in some areas, because, for example, in one of the wards in my own constituency, I have one street where there is nobody living—it’s just all student HMOs—and, of course, we see that in some holiday destinations with holiday lets as well. So, it’s a similar problem with a different cause. So, I’m very keen to learn from the experiences of people right around Wales, right around the UK, and right around Europe on how to deal with some of these really difficult issues. Exactly the same as the tourists—the students bring vibrancy, wealth and diversity to the city, but they also go away for very large periods of time, leaving behind them businesses that struggle to make it through the gap. It’s not a dissimilar situation, so the analogy holds.

So, we’re looking forward to working with you, Siân, as fast as we can to make sure that we get the right scheme in the right place across Wales. And as I say, the more you speak to different communities, the more you realise that there is a different set of problems in each community, and I think a one-size-fits-all-across-Wales approach will not work either, so that’s why we want to be able to pilot some of the proposals that we have in communities that are happy to help us with those pilots.

Minister, I know that residents in Rhondda, especially our young people and young families, will be grateful to hear that the Government are building on the work of the previous Senedd, taking action to combat the very real housing crisis. I’ve been contacted by graduates who left Rhondda to attend university and now wish to return to their home town to buy a home of their own, but face a very real affordability issue due to a sharp rise in demand during the lockdown period from buyers outside our communities. I, of course, welcome with open arms individuals and families who wish to reside in our Rhondda communities, but it's so important that we find a fair balance. Will the Minister ensure that young people returning to their Valleys' hometowns have access to affordable homes and ensure they aren't priced out?

Yes. Thank you very much, Buffy, and that just demonstrates nicely, doesn't it, that the issue is an issue right across Wales for a different set of reasons. So, we have issues with areas surrounding our big cities that become commuter towns, so to speak; we have issues with holidays; we have issues with students; we have a whole range of issues right across Wales. There's no silver bullet for this—that's the real point that we're finding here. If you read Dr Simon Brooks's report, and, indeed, our response, which all Members will now have, you'll see that he's acknowledging that there's no silver bullet. What we will need is a range of measures right across Wales that work differently in different communities, to ensure that we do have access to affordable housing for our young people and, indeed, our families and all of our communities. And that will be that mix of good social housing that's available for all, because it's not rationed any more—shared-equity schemes, co-operative housing, community land housing—and then, the kinds of schemes that we have seen around Help to Buy and so on that allow people to get that foot on the housing ladder. And I already said, in answer to a previous speaker, that one of the things we want to do is work with lenders to make sure that people who can demonstrate good rental records are still considered for mortgage offers. So, the way that that market works is really driving some of the issues we're seeing at the moment as well. And, of course, I've also mentioned the various taxation issues and so on that we'll be bringing to bear too. But I'm really happy, Buffy, to work with you, and any of the communities you have, to see what we can pilot in some of those communities as well.

Last summer, it was reported that almost 40 per cent of properties sold in Gwynedd in the year to April 2020 were purchased as second homes, but strong anecdotal evidence indicates that this resulted from a disproportionately large number of existing second homes on the market. When I previously asked the Welsh Government what analysis it had therefore undertaken to establish whether this was a representative sample, they replied 'none'. The need for local people to be able to access quality affordable housing in holiday home hotspots is not a new issue; the same applied when my family sold our holiday home in Abersoch half a century ago, and holiday homes still in use as holiday homes today were built there in increasing volumes from the late nineteenth century. With many owners not only connected to local people economically but also through personal friendship and even marriage—and I speak from personal experience here—taxing holiday hotspot second home owners simply displaces ownership to wealthier second home owners or onerous registration with a valuation office agency as legitimate holiday lets.

Following the Welsh Government's massive cuts in social housing grant, the Assembly's north Wales regional committee met in Pwllheli in October 2003—18 years ago—to take evidence from local people on the affordable housing crisis in communities there—

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Can the Member ask the question now, please?

—when deliverable solutions were proposed to us. So, instead of conflating this issue with second homes built for that purpose, as most were, what direct action will you therefore now take to identify the specific local need in these hotspots for both homes for social rent and, separately, affordable homes for intermediate rent, or low cost home ownership, and then to target increased supply of both in these hotspots to meet this need?

Yes. Thank you, Mark. I understand the point that you're making about homes built as holiday homes. However, there is a real issue with houses that are vacant in communities across Wales that have a direct impact on the viability of other local services. And, as you've heard me say numerous times in this statement today, the issue here is about having sustainable communities across Wales, with a level of all kinds of home ownership in them that is sustainable. When you have skewed out-of-proportion levels of any type of home ownership or home occupation, then you get problems. Mixed-tenure sustainable communities are the ones we know, across the world, that really work, and so I don't think we're at odds there; the issue is how do we get to a sustainable community when we already have communities that are no longer sustainable for a variety of reasons, as we've rehearsed around the Chamber today. And there are a variety of reasons that cause single-tenure unsustainability: some of them are around holiday-type arrangements; some of them are around student-type arrangements; some of them are around commuter-type arrangements; some of them are—there's a variety of affordability issues.

And, I have to say, I'm not going to take any lectures off any Tories about the reason that we didn't build any houses right up until only a few years ago, because you know as well as I do that the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 prohibited us from doing that, and that we only had that cap removed a very short number of years ago, because the Tories took 40 years to come to their senses on why we should build social housing. [Interruption.]—Well, you put it to me and I'm giving you the answer. So, the point about that is we can now build social housing at scale across Wales, and we will do so. We ought to have done it a long time ago, but we were prevented from doing so by policies of the Conservative Government. I'm very pleased to say that those policies—well, you've seen sense—no longer pertain in Wales, and so we're able to now build at scale and pace, because that is the actual solution: to build the right houses in the right place for the right access to people. So, if you don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.

[Inaudible.]

Shush. And lastly, Carolyn Thomas.

Diolch. Well, I can confirm that Flintshire County Council are building 500 affordable houses for rent, thanks to Welsh Government policies and funding as well to help with that. So, I am pleased that the Welsh Government is tackling this issue of second home ownership seriously with the outlined three-pronged approach. Just this week, I was contacted by a constituent. She has seen a 40 per cent increase in homes in her area of Llandudno being bought for holiday lets, and she recently received a letter through her door, which reads as follows:

'I am keen to purchase a second home in the Llandudno, Conwy area in the next 18 months. Once furlough ends, if house prices do fall, then I would be inclined to wait and see when at what price they bottom out. Therefore, I am keen to commit as soon as possible as to not allow market turbulence decisions to get in the way. So, for me, it is a long-term strategy.'

The resident phoned to clarify what the writer meant by this, and he was very clear his aim is to maximise profit. I think this is evidence of the clear pressures local people are under to sell from those looking to profiteer, and the scale of the problems we face in north Wales. So, I very much hope that my region in north Wales is being considered for the pilot that was mentioned earlier. So, I would like to make that approach to you, please.

So, I welcome the proposals laid out—

Can you ask the question now, please?

I welcome the proposals laid out, and I would like to put forward that region, if that's possible. Sorry, I don't end with a question. Thank you—diolch.

Thank you very much, Carolyn, and, yes, of course, we'll explore doing a pilot in your region—I'm very happy to do so. But you've just encapsulated the problem, haven't you? Because, for most ordinary people, the only big investment they make in their lives is the house that they live in, and therefore, when they sell it, they want to maximise the return that they get from it, and that's entirely understandable. And that's one of the reasons we want to pilot these measures, because we want to be sure that all of the people in the community are happy with the effect of some of the measures that we're going to have. There's no doubt that some of the measures mentioned today will have the effect of depressing house prices in some areas, so we need to make sure that the community is happy for that, because it delivers to them the sustainable and inclusive community that they want to be part of. I'm not saying that we'll have 100 per cent people happy with that, but we need to be sure that people understand the impact of what's being suggested. We have a large number of schemes across the world, across the UK, which were very well-intentioned in putting in place, which had dramatic unintended consequences on volatile property markets, so we do need to be sure that we're doing the right thing by the right people. And I will just finish by saying I'm absolutely pleased to work with you on bringing a pilot forward in your region, but one of the things you absolutely rightly identified is that the real way out of this crisis is to build the right number of houses that we need in the right places across Wales to ensure that everyone in Wales has a safe, affordable home they can call their own.

Thank you, Minister.