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.