The next item, therefore, is the statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language on the Welsh language communities housing plan. I call on the Minister to make his statement—Jeremy Miles.

Thank you, Llywydd. Ensuring that local people can afford to live in the communities in which they grew up, and maintaining the vitality of Welsh as a thriving community language, are both key strategic goals for the Welsh Government.

The Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, has just outlined a number of key interventions that we intend to make on second homes and affordability. She reiterated our determination to support our communities and to see them thrive. Today, I want to outline a critical and complementary element of this work, which is the development of a Welsh language communities housing plan, which is also a key programme for government commitment.

Large numbers of second homes and holiday lets have provoked strong feelings in some communities across Wales for some years now. In these communities, there is often a sense of injustice that people are priced out of the local housing market by those purchasing second homes or short-term holiday accommodation. We are determined to tackle this issue.

We are aware of the challenges being faced, and we've already made clear strides towards addressing them. On 6 July, my colleague the Minister for Climate Change set out our ambition to address issues relating to second home ownership, and her announcement today sets out how the issues of tax, planning and affordability will be tackled.

Alongside this, for those communities in which Welsh is widely spoken in the community, our Welsh language communities housing plan will play a crucial part in our response. We will develop a package of interventions that intertwines with the national approaches in order to support and protect Welsh-speaking communities.

'Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers' acknowledges the importance of these communities as places that facilitate the use of the language in every aspect of life. We need, therefore, careful economic, community and linguistic planning to enable Welsh-speaking communities to be economically and linguistically viable. People, especially our young people, must be able to afford to live, work and make a valuable contribution within these Welsh-speaking communities.

This consultation explores how the collective package of interventions, including those being trialled in Dwyfor, could be complemented at a community level to support and protect the Welsh language, while avoiding unintended consequences. It seeks views on what additional initiatives are needed to ensure that people, especially young people, can afford to live and work in our Welsh-speaking communities. Social justice is at the heart of our proposed interventions. Some of the interventions proposed in this consultation may also benefit from being included in the Dwyfor trial.

The consultation document proposes a number of measures and seeks views on them. Those measures are as follows. First, we propose to provide support for community-led co-operative and social enterprises. Second, we propose to establish a pilot project on community-owned social businesses in the tourism sector. Third, we propose to establish an estate agent steering group to consider possible projects and research regarding local housing markets.

Fourth, we propose to explore a voluntary fair chance scheme, so that properties are available on the market for a limited time to local people only. Fifth, we propose to establish a network of cultural ambassadors to engage at community level to support social cohesion and gain a better understanding by all of our culture, Welsh language and heritage.

Sixth, we propose to establish a commission on Welsh language communities to better understand the challenges facing Welsh-speaking communities within the context of the linguistic, economic and social changes as a result of COVID-19 and Brexit. It will work to develop a model that will help to identify areas of particular linguistic sensitivity, where tailored policy interventions can be applied.

Seventh, we propose to work with local authority leaders to strengthen the link between the economy, housing and Welsh language by enhancing the work of the economy and Welsh language round-table to include housing and a role for overseeing the progress of the Welsh language communities housing plan. And finally, we propose to explore new ways of safeguarding and promoting Welsh language place names.

Now, there are opportunities for communities here to lead some of these interventions, and we certainly want to provide them with the necessary tools to empower, encourage and facilitate community participation. Co-operatives and social enterprises are already an important part of the social and economic landscape in Wales. We want to explore ways of encouraging communities to lead in small-scale housing development, as well as establish social businesses that ensure that communities that risk losing valuable services are able to safeguard and take control of their future.

There are no easy answers. But I'm confident that the interventions proposed today will help us to ensure that people in Welsh-speaking communities can afford to live in the communities in which they grew up.

This is a complex area, and there will be a range of views on how the Welsh Government should respond. Therefore, we encourage everyone in the communities affected, the length and breadth of Wales, to respond to this consultation, whether they run businesses in these areas, live in these areas, own property, or deliver public services—to respond to this consultation and help shape our Welsh-language communities housing plan.

And as the Minister for Climate Change has just said, this is an area covered by the co-operation agreement that the First Minister announced yesterday, so I look forward to having further discussions with the designated Plaid Cymru Member as we work together to respond to this very important issue.

We will continue to develop and explore all options available to ensure that our Welsh-speaking communities thrive.

Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you for the opportunity to read the statement before hand, and I'd like to declare a personal interest in this issue.

Today’s statement was previously scheduled for last week, however it was delayed. It’s now evident from today’s statement that we were in fact waiting on the final details of the Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition before you made any formal announcement in relation to your Welsh language communities housing plan policy.

There is a unique problem in certain areas of Wales where local people are unable to buy homes in the areas in which they grew up. This is understood by all sides of the Chamber, despite what the climate change Minister said earlier. With this come concerns on the impact on the Welsh language and culture.

Firstly, I welcome the consultation, as it provides an opportunity for all to submit their thoughts. Everyone in these communities has a right to an opinion and a right to express it, and I hope the consultation will provide a wide range of answers and scenarios to ensure that future policy is of benefit.

Home building across Wales hasn't kept up with demand. Although the Government promises to build 20,000 low-carbon homes, from what I see, it doesn't note where in Wales these new homes will be built. We need to build homes where there is demand for them, not where it's easier to do it.

I would also point out that, throughout Wales, there exist more empty properties than second homes, and so I would be interested in knowing what the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues plan to do in addressing these issues. What will be done to get these properties back into use, allowing more people to have a home? Properties that are permanently empty 24/7 and that are not adequately maintained can have an impact on a local area, but equally they can help aid the solution to this very discussion we’re having this afternoon. I fear this solution has, perhaps, fallen under the radar, and so is one that requires greater debate and further focus.

There is also evidence in areas where second home premiums have been added to council tax that second home owners are flipping their properties over and registering them as self-catering units, thus avoiding the need to pay higher taxes, and sometimes meaning they pay no rates at all. Strengthening the eligibility criteria to stop this from happening must be a priority. Genuine self-catering businesses would welcome the removal of this unscrupulous behaviour by some second-home owners. Tourism mustn’t be seen as the enemy, but rather a key addition to our economy. Our rich culture, beautiful landscapes and warm welcome see people visit Wales, supporting jobs and livelihoods.

Over the past 18 months, working patterns have changed, with many people returning to those areas where they grew up, and, as we transfer out of the pandemic, it's unlikely that we will return to the traditional forms of working at an office desk. There are examples of young professionals returning to those areas in which they grew up to continue with their city jobs from the comfort of their own homes, not unlike those Members of this Chamber who choose to attend Plenary meetings via Zoom. Often, these young professionals can return with the Welsh language and children who would attend local schools. We need to focus on improving work opportunities for young people in traditionally Welsh-speaking areas.

Another issue I’ve raised in this Chamber is the buying of Welsh farmland for tree planting by organisations and businesses from outside of Wales. Therefore, I would welcome it if the community-led co-operatives and social enterprises element could be extended to include agricultural land. Agriculture has a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than other industries, and supporting that industry, ensuring the local community has the opportunity to purchase food-producing land and protect it, will naturally help protect the language in these areas, as agriculture supports approximately three times as many jobs as the forestry industry, for example.

Minister, in conclusion, ensuring that rural Wales has a sufficient number of homes and quality jobs for local people, and that there is support for the Welsh language and culture, is a challenge, and we need to tackle that challenge. I very much hope that the responses to the consultation will provide a long-term strategy to ensure that we're not talking about this issue in years to come. Thank you.

May I thank the Member for the questions in his contribution? In terms of the questions on affordability and housing use, the climate change Minister has had an opportunity to listen to your questions. She responded to some of them in her earlier statement, but the questions have been very useful, so thank you very much for them.

In terms of some of the more specific issues in my statement, in terms of the importance of tourism, I'm sure he'll welcome the work that we outline in the consultation document with regard to supporting short-term holiday let businesses to be able to reinvest to ensure that there's additional stock available to local communities on a social basis, to contribute to the tourism landscape and to provide economic opportunity locally to ensure that there is social use of that resource.

I agree entirely with him about what he said about employment opportunities in the local economy. That's one of the objectives at the heart of supporting social enterprises and co-operative companies, including in the areas of work that he mentioned in his contribution. There are several examples across Wales, such as Cwmni Bro Ffestiniog, Partneriaeth Ogwen and Galeri in Caernarfon, which are co-operatives that enable employment locally, but also use of the Welsh language in everything that they do, and that contributes to the local economy.

In terms of the final point that he raised with regard to land use, I'm aware that the climate change Minister is looking at that issue at the moment in terms of planning.

Thank you very much, Minister, for this statement. I warmly welcome the statement. And as has been said by Mabon ap Gwynfor, I am very pleased to see that so many exciting and crucial policies for our Welsh-speaking communities have been included in the agreement between us as two parties.

I welcome the ambitious aims and objectives outlined in this statement today, and I look forward to working with you on these important issues in order to create a better Wales, where the Welsh language and our culture can prosper and where Welsh language communities are supported and safeguarded, and where the lives of people will improve in general terms.

I certainly welcome the ambition of the various policies outlined, and language campaigners, me among them, along with Plaid Cymru, have been fighting for a long time—over decades, indeed—to try and tackle the problem of housing, and second homes particularly, in our Welsh-speaking communities, and the principle that has been acknowledged by the Minister for Climate Change, and yourself in this statement—the important principle that local people should be able to afford to live in the communities in which they grew up.

I'm pleased that this is a clear statement from you as a Government, although I do fear that the statement and the implementation that will follow, hopefully, is a little too late in the day for some of those communities that have already been lost in terms of the very high number of second homes and the number of individuals who have suffered as a result of that. But we are here to deliver the strategic aims of 'Cymraeg 2050', and what's important, of course, is to see how housing policy, planning policy and Welsh language policy can dovetail in a strategy that is positive and beneficial. And, of course, part of the solution to the problem of trying to retain young people in their communities is, yes, housing, but also strengthening the local economy, so that people can find work in those areas, make a meaningful and considered contribution to their local communities and make a good living in the areas of their choice. The old Cymdeithas yr Iaith slogan of many years ago comes to mind: 'Tai a gwaith i gadw'r iaith'—housing and work to save the language.

So, specifically in terms of questions to you. You've placed great emphasis on housing and strengthening the economy, so, in that regard, can you explain exactly what you have in mind in terms of strengthening the economy and securing housing for local people? What particular plans do you have to tackle those issues? And in terms of housing developments, this is a sensitive issue also, because housing developments need to happen where there is demand for that housing. Very often, these developments are built at the outskirts of our towns, and that means that these developments are a long way from important services, a long way from schools, from public transport provision and even access to jobs, and, very often, these housing developments don't include enough affordable housing. I want to echo one point that's been made by the Conservatives already, namely that we need more of an emphasis on bringing empty homes back into use. So, will you as Minister outline how your Government intends to ensure that new homes meet local needs, particularly in Welsh-speaking areas, and how new housing and the planning process can lead to better outcomes for the language and young Welsh speakers? And also, what are the responsibilities of housing associations in terms of their letting policies in terms of safeguarding Welsh-speaking communities?

As I said, in general terms I welcome the diverse policy solutions that we've heard about already, but, despite how ambitious some of these measures appear to be, I would like a little more detail, first of all in terms of providing support to social enterprises and community co-operative businesses—well, to do what and what are their purpose? The pilot project in terms of the tourism sector: what's the model you're going to use there, what's the role of the cultural ambassadors and who will they be accountable to? The establishment of a commission: what does that mean, is that a task and finish group or a standing body? And also the economy and language round-table: I have been part of that since the outset, and I think we do need to now make progress and see planning for particular actions to be taken.

And to conclude, Llywydd, if I may, in order to deliver these objectives, we need funding and resources, of course. So, could you give us further details on what financial support and what expertise can be provided by Government in order to put these measures in places? Thank you.

Thank you to the Member for the variety of questions in his contribution. In terms of the detail of the scheme, we've published a consultation document today that answers several of the questions that the Member has asked—important questions on the detail regarding our intentions in relation to the eight measures that I outlined. So, I would recommend that anybody who has an interest in the detail of the proposal should look at that document.

But, just to give a flavour of what we have in mind, in terms of the work on local housing and ensuring that there is access to the housing market and homes for local people, on top of what the Minister for Climate Change has already stated, one of the things that we would want to do is work with the local housing associations, which the Member mentioned in his question, to look at co-operative housing models, or housing models that have been led by the community, to look at ways of meeting local need. This, of course, is an element that already exists in several of our communities, but there is more support and more that we can do in that specific area.

With regard to opportunities in the private market, this, of course, is more difficult in terms of economic interventions. The planning interventions and so on are as the Minister for Climate Change has already outlined. We hope, with the estate agents steering group, that we can develop relationships and build on what already exists in terms of auctioneers and local estate agents and Welsh-speaking communities—work has already been done with them in several communities, good work, to increase awareness of local culture and the importance of the Welsh language locally—and build on that to introduce a fair opportunity for local people who want to buy and rent, and an opportunity for them to have access to the market before those opportunities are shared more widely. Perhaps that's something that needs to be trialled to see how that can work practically.

And to return to the point on buying property by co-operatives and local housing associations and so on, perhaps a few weeks would be enough for those companies to be able to prepare a financial package to buy some of these homes for social purposes as well.

He mentioned the work being done by the round-table. One of the annexes to the consultation document outlines what the round-table has already recommended. A great deal of those recommendations are either under way or being developed at the moment, but, as we've already heard, we need to seek those opportunities, and we've seen some of those with Arfor as well—people receiving financial support to establish businesses in those localities where the Welsh language is spoken. So, that evaluation is happening currently. I'm sure that opportunities will arise from that evaluation to expand that in more communities as well. 

John Griffiths, Chair of the housing committee.

Thank you, Llywydd. I'm speaking as Chair of the Local Government and Housing Committee. Thank you very much to the Minister for his statement.

As I outlined earlier, our committee is currently looking at second homes and will be looking at the Welsh Government's response to Dr Brooks's report on whether the steps taken are appropriate ones. Of course, Dr Brooks looked at the future of Welsh as a community language, and he found that the issue of second homes was affecting what he described, I think, as

'the territorial "core" of traditional Welsh-speaking Wales'.

Dr Brooks said that new policies will be required in a range of areas, including but not confined to second homes, if Welsh-speaking communities are to be stabilised over the next few decades. So, I wonder if the Minister could outline how Dr Brooks's work has shaped this plan.

The impact on the Welsh language and Welsh-speaking communities is a very important aspect for my committee to take into account when considering policies relating to second homes, and, as a committee, we're very mindful of that and will be ensuring that we explore this crucial element as we take forward our work. The language must thrive across Wales, and policies and approaches have to safeguard that.

Dr Brooks recommended the establishment of a commission to make recommendations regarding the future of the Welsh language as a community language, and I thank the Minister for the update on the establishment of a commission. The committee will gather views from stakeholders on that matter through the inquiry.

I'd just like to conclude by saying that, obviously, this issue does cut across many different areas, including the portfolios of different Welsh Government Ministers, and we do need a holistic approach, as always, when we're dealing with complex and difficult issues, and I wonder if the Minister could explain how he's worked with other Welsh Government Ministers across portfolios in developing this plan. Just finally, as a committee, we look forward to exploring these issues with stakeholders and also the Minister as well, of course, and we will invite him to give evidence next year. Diolch yn fawr.

Well, thank you to the Member for those questions. I'd be very happy, of course, to collaborate with him and his committee to develop the proposals that are in the package that is being consulted on today. In terms of the influence of Dr Brooks's work on this plan and on the scheme that the climate change Minister has outlined today, I think it's at the heart of the vision that is here. It's had a significant impact on what we are announcing. Examples of that are the importance, which the Member may have heard, of ensuring that we have a tourism sector that is sustainable and that allows activity and economic opportunities locally, the importance of the local economy more widely, and that's at the heart of what we are proposing in terms of social enterprises and co-operatives.

But specifically in terms of the commission's work—and with apologies to Cefin Campbell, I didn't respond to that part of his question—we're not talking about a commission that is a statutory body being established independently of Government. We have an opportunity for the commission to look at empirical evidence, if you will, that will be the basis of our understanding of the impact of socioeconomic changes on our Welsh-speaking communities, but also to create the basis of evidence for this idea of areas of interest and significant sensitivity with regard to the Welsh language. And that, perhaps, will provide an opportunity for us to tailor a package of further interventions in future specifically for those communities that are particularly sensitive with regard to the future prosperity of the Welsh language in those communities. 

The Member makes a very important point in terms of how different elements of Government collaborate. This is a priority that touches almost all parts of the range of Government responsibilities. For example, the round-table already touches on the language, the economy and now, from now on, the question of housing as well. So, the Ministers who have an interest and a responsibility in all of those particular areas have a role with regard to the work of the round-table. And there's a cross-party group that's been working on some of the issues, and the climate change Minister and myself, the finance Minister and the economy Minister have occasionally been part of that forum so that we can make a joint contribution to meeting this important aim. 

And finally, Sioned Williams.

I'm seeking some clarity, Minister. You mentioned in the statement that—one of the things you listed was new ways of raising awareness of Welsh language place names and promoting them. Now, raising awareness, not safeguarding. But, I note in the English translation that we received on e-mail—clearly, I wasn't listening to the interpretation, but in the English translation of the statement via e-mail, it mentions 'safeguarding'. That's the term used in the English version. Of course, safeguarding is different to raising awareness, isn't it? I'm sure that you would agree that replacing Welsh language place names is an insult to our identity as a nation and a loss to our culture and our history. So, I just wanted some clarity on that particular point. Thank you. 

Thank you. Well, there is no difference from my point of view. The substance is that we want to safeguard place names. I refer the Member to page 14 of the consultation document, which outlines the specific steps we have in mind.

I thank the Minister.