6. Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: The Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:03 pm on 23 November 2021.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 5:03, 23 November 2021

(Translated)

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.