2. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Climate Change regarding the language impact of Welsh-language family farms being sold to companies in order to plant trees for carbon offsetting programmes? OQ56943

I hold discussions on numerous issues with the Minister for Climate Change relevant to our portfolios and have had conversations with the Deputy Minister on this issue. Meeting woodland creation targets is crucial to reach our climate change commitments, as well as generating new opportunities for farmers, including Welsh-speaking farmers. We recognise that investments should not affect communities or change the type of landowners.

I was surprised to hear your fellow Minister saying earlier that the Government doesn't think that this is a huge problem, because I'm aware of 10 farms in the Tywi valley area alone that have been purchased by commercial operators, and we heard the Farmers' Union of Wales saying that they see reports, on a weekly basis, of this happening. So, this is the agricultural version of the wider second-homes crisis, because local farming families don't have the financial capacity to compete with these external companies. And what we're seeing is a shift towards a pattern of land ownership that is more similar to what we saw in the previous century. The potential in terms of depopulation is similar to what we saw in Scotland with the highland clearances in the eighteenth century. And, in my case, these are Welsh-speaking farms, and this is true of the majority of farms throughout Wales because of the nature of the industry. We're losing land, we're losing a language. So, can we have an impact assessment by the linguistic planning department to see the impact that this could have on language transmission within our Welsh-speaking communities?

Well, the change in the rural economy, of course, is a crucial element in language policy development, so these things are under constant overview. Now, I didn't hear the answer of the Minister for Climate Change, but it's not clear what the scale of the problem is, and we don't want it to become a major problem; we want to work with farmers to ensure that it doesn't become a problem. In terms of the evaluation that we've already carried out of the policy, then there seems to be little evidence at the moment in terms of a change in land ownership to developers. Out of over 1,100 customers, 35 customers have addresses outwith Wales. We've looked at where these proposals are coming from, and 17 of the 35 projects funded through the Welsh woodland grant scheme are under 6 hectares, so it's unlikely, under those circumstances, that those represent large developers who are looking to turn large pieces of land into woodland. But, as I said earlier, it's important that we keep an eye on this and, if evidence develops that it is a problem, then that is where we will take action.

Janet Finch-Saunders.

[Inaudible.]

Thank you for sharing that with me.