Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:40 pm on 9 March 2022.
Thank you, Rhys, for bringing this debate forward, and, in thinking about this, I'd assumed that most people would speak of community assets like pubs, chapels and so on. So, I want to ask the Deputy Minister specifically for his views on the Welsh Co-operative Centre's paper on land ownership and the development of co-operative housing. What's become apparent to me, certainly, is the lack of information available in Wales in terms of land ownership. Who owns land in Wales and what land is appropriate for development? I'm very eager to hear whether the Deputy Minister believes that we need a transparent register of land ownership here in Wales. Of course, the availability of housing is important for me, specifically housing to meet demand and to allow co-operative developments that would meet this need for affordable housing to meet community need and enable local initiatives to take ownership of property or land to that end. The demand for this is increasing, so I would be very pleased to hear the view of the Deputy Minister on how the Government can enable this. Thank you once again.