1. Will the Minister make a statement on progress with achieving targets set out in 'Cymraeg 2050', please? OQ57717

Yesterday I published the 'Cymraeg 2050' annual report for the 2020-21 financial year, which shows progress against our targets. Once the results of the 2021 census have been published, we'll revisit the statistical trajectory towards a million Welsh speakers, as I promised last July when I launched our work programme for 2021-26.

Thank you, Minister. The Welsh language belongs to us all, whether we speak it or not.

But unpleasant commentary recently has sought to reawaken divides over Welsh. Jeremy Bowen, Jonathan Meades and others have rightly been criticised, but this could, ironically, be an opportunity, because the Government's plans with 'Cymraeg 2050' could centre not only on increasing the numbers of people who speak Welsh, as vital as that is, but centre also on creating favourable conditions. Surely, part of this has to entail increasing the sense of ownership that non-Welsh speakers feel for this language that enriches all of us in society. Some of the fiercest campaigners I know for Welsh-medium education are the very people who were denied the chance to learn Welsh when they were little. So, Minister, how do you think that Government plans and targets can work in concert with the need to increase this level of support for Welsh among those who can't speak it? How can we ensure that everyone living in Wales and everyone who feels this sense of belonging to Wales—that they feel that the language, too, belongs to them and that they have a part to play in its story?

I would, if I may, just associate myself entirely with the sentiment in the question; I couldn't agree more with the world view that you've described in your question. It is fantastic that 86 per cent of adults in Wales have pride in the Welsh language, whether they speak it or not. Just let that statistic sink in; it's fantastic as a sort of starting point for the analysis.

I think one of the things we must do is make sure, as I was saying in the statement yesterday, that we encourage everybody, even if they have a word or two of Welsh, and most people in Wales have a word or two of the language, just to use them, because, actually, it's by creating the use of Welsh, even in that small way, in the public space that we'll help each other along that journey.

There are lots of people who feel put off by, maybe, feeling their Welsh isn't what they would like it to be, and I think we should, actually, change the expectation and say, 'Use the Welsh that you have got; learn a few more words and use a bit more every day.' In that way, we'll make real progress towards the million Welsh speakers and doubling the use of Welsh every day.

'Cymraeg 2050' acknowledges the importance of Welsh-speaking communities as places that facilitate the use of the language in every aspect of everyday life. However, with the Welsh Government only delivering 4,616 of the 12,000 new homes required annually in Wales, there is a huge shortage of houses for our youngest generations to remain in their home towns or villages. In fact, a cumulative total of 14,240 young people in the 20 to 29 age group left four Welsh counties between 2012 and 2016. [Interruption.] The consultation on the Welsh language communities housing plan highlighted that you are considering options to help local people to access affordable housing. Minister, many Welsh-language young people are from farms and, as such, their families do own land. Technical advice note 6 allows for new isolated residential development in the open countryside for rural enterprise workers, but have you ever considered undertaking some discussions with the Minister for Climate Change to maybe expand—[Interruption.] Yes, you could do it now.

Allow the Member to carry on with her question. I'm sure she's coming to it very soon. 

I am. To expand on TAN 6 that maybe children of farmers can more easily gain planning permission to build homes on their own family land. Diolch.

Well, I think the question was a model of cross-Government scrutiny, in terms—[Interruption.]—in terms of its breadth and its scope, which is commendable. I think somewhat at odds with the comments I heard the Member made this morning about the proposals that the Government are bringing forward in relation to council tax to the benefit of some of those communities that she identifies rightly in her question—[Interruption.] That she identifies rightly in her question—

Carry on, Minister, yes.

—as being a particular concern for many of us in this Chamber. I know from the discussions that we've had in a private setting that she shares many of those concerns as well. I would dispute the figures that you've given in relation to housing provision, and I know my colleague here, the Minister for Climate Change, is passionately disputing them as well to my side here. But I welcome her commitment to making sure that our Welsh-speaking communities, where Welsh is a main language, retain their vibrancy and their prosperity into the future. I hope she's taken the opportunity of responding to the consultation that closed during last week and I'll look forward to reading her comments if she has.