1. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh language communities housing scheme? OQ56784

As my friend and colleague the Minister for Climate Change set out in her oral statement on 6 July, she and I will bring forward a Welsh language communities housing plan for consultation in the autumn.

Thank you, Minister. The most recent statistics by revenue Cymru show that 44 per cent of the homes sold in Dwyfor Meirionnydd last year were sold at the higher rate. Now there are many definitions of what that means, but I've spoken to estate agents and lawyers in the area and it's clear that the vast majority of those homes were sold as second homes. The statistics for the previous year were very similar too. It is clear therefore that there is a crisis in our communities and we need to see urgent action. It's a concern therefore that this committee will not meet until the autumn and we don't know when it will report back with recommendations, never mind actually implementing those recommendations. Do you accept that there is a crisis in our Welsh-speaking communities, and that we need to take further urgent steps to respond as soon as possible, and what is the timetable for your committee? Thank you.

I thank Mabon ap Gwynfor for that further question. I certainly accept that it is a crisis for the reasons that he says. The figures that he revealed are a cause of concern for many of us, I would say. The task for us as a Government working with the other parties is to ensure that we have answers that are effective and legal and which are quick, and we have a programme of work based on what the climate change Minister has stated in the Chamber, and included in our response to the report by Dr Simon Brooks, which shows the range of interventions that we intend to make, and many of those have been taken immediately over the summer weeks, including collaboration with areas of Wales which are ready to work with us on testing some of these elements, and that's very important in this context.

In terms of the work of the committee, I'm not sure which committee you're referring to. My intention is to have a consultation in the autumn—the plan that I outlined earlier—but there are a variety of things. We mention in the letter to Dr Brooks that we intend to accept his recommendation in terms of establishing a commission on this, but we're also clear that the other steps are not dependent on the establishment of a commission. In other ways, they'll proceed anyway.

The Welsh research paper on second-home ownership published yesterday states, and I quote:

'There is only limited robust evidence however, that addresses the impact of second homes on community sustainability and cohesion, including for example on Welsh language and culture'.

Given that the Welsh language community housing plan is scheduled for consultation this autumn, as you mentioned, Minister, are the Welsh Government looking at undertaking any further research to collect more evidence to ensure decisions made are robust, fair and long-standing, rather than knee-jerk and reactionary?

Well, I wouldn’t accept that this is happening in a way that’s reactionary. I think that there is an obvious problem here for communities where Welsh is the main language and I think that problem is obvious to many of us, and certainly we do need data and we do certainly need to look carefully at the definitions that we use in this area, and those are important so that we have the right answers or solutions, but that work can happen as we take forward this work programme. As I’ve said, as Dr Brooks has said clearly in his report, various elements are interwoven and are co-dependent and we have to look at all of them to ensure that we obtain the right solutions.