I now call on Rhys ab Owen to speak on the subject of his choice. 

Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm very pleased to see this cross-party element in this debate. A number of Conservatives have decided to contribute, perhaps it's the title 'taking back control' that attracted them to join in. But I'm giving a minute of my time to Peredur Owen Griffiths, to Mabon ap Gwynfor, Carolyn Thomas, Joel James, the two Samuels—Kurtz and Rowlands—and to Tom Giffard. That's one way of getting me to speak less: to give a minute of my time. [Laughter.]

A recent report by the Institute of Welsh Affairs emphasised that Wales has the poorest land and community rights in the United Kingdom. Local communities face difficult battles in their efforts to buy local assets for their communities, to serve their communities, indeed, be they pubs, churches or chapels, or woodland and green spaces.

When Wales was squeezed by Conservative austerity to pick up the bill for bankers, councils across our nation were forced to sell off community assets. While citizens in Scotland and in England were able to organise, work and mobilise to buy and protect their assets, this was not the same story in Wales. We will never know the full extent of community loss this nation faced during those years of austerity, but everyone will know a story of a family farm sold, youth centres boarded up or local pubs closed and razed to the ground for trendy apartments or posh apartment blocks.

Too often in Wales, and specifically in Cardiff, we have seen organised communities sidelined. Local assets sold to some faceless corporation or development firm, looking to maximise personal profit over social value for the whole area.

For a nation that's often called a community of communities, the lack of rights for community groups here beggars belief. Local gardens and parks, allotments and urban farms increase the value of an area, socially and economically. Community assets have been, and will continue to be, one of the most effective ways of strengthening community spirit, of facilitating collaboration and of fostering that feeling of belonging.

People want to live in communities that are unique, that are personal, not some carbon copy of every other town and village. People don't want to live, nor do they want to visit, clone towns that offer nothing exciting, personal or dynamic. What work, therefore, has the Welsh Government done to streamline the process of community asset purchase and when will we see the Senedd codifying the rights of communities over their local assets? What consideration has the Welsh Government given to the introduction of a community empowerment Bill, as suggested by the Institute of Welsh Affairs? Such a Bill would create a register of community assets, and give communities a statutory right of first refusal over these assets when their proposed sale comes up. Would the Welsh Government establish a community asset fund based on the successful Scottish land fund that distributes between £5,000 and £1 million to start to address this issue?

In Cardiff, we hear often of threatened facilities, nearly every week: the Roath Park pub on City Road; the old Bethel Chapel in Morganstown; Canton community centre; the Maindy velodrome—think about the Maindy velodrome for one minute—the only sporting facility still standing in the city from when the Commonwealth Games visited in 1958. On that very velodrome, Geraint Thomas started training, Colin Jackson started training, Nicole Cooke started training, and yet we want to get rid of that historic sporting venue.

Jenny Rathbone—I'm pleased to see Jenny still with us online—has raised consistently the threat to the Roath Park pub on City Road. That's a pub that has stood on that spot since 1886, a meeting place for local people to come together to discuss and enjoy themselves. After a furious response to a planning application to demolish the pub and replace it with a block of soulless flats, the application was withdrawn, only for a second application to be submitted without any plans to build anything in the building's stead, but just for demolition. There's a precedent for this; there's a pub further down City Road that was demolished and the site has been empty ever since. This appalling application was approved by Cardiff Council, with the leader of the Labour-run council calling for changes to the planning system, saying that his hands were tied, as were those of the planning committee. But these changes are within our powers here at the Senedd. We can change the planning system in Wales; we can't blame Westminster this time, friends and colleagues.

It's too late to save a number of our community buildings. No more will there be a cymanfa ganu or tea party in Noddfa chapel in Treorchy, the cathedral of the Rhondda Valley; the last orders have long since been called in the Gower pub, and there’ll be no more gigs at the Gwdihŵ nightclub. The Vulcan went to St Fagans to make way for a car park for a handful of cars. It's appalling to see community treasures being demolished, and the best hope for many of them is that they become historical artifacts in St Fagans. Isn't it a shame that a nation like Wales, which has always strongly emphasised community power, gives communities such limited statutory rights? As we were reminded several times today and yesterday, it's deeds rather than words that are important.

Warm words are not enough for these communities.

It's time for us to correct this failure time and time again. It's time for this Senedd to show the communities of Wales devolution at its best. It's time for us to empower people, empower communities, and, by doing so, empower every part of the nation. A nation's strength is its communities. Thank you very much.

He has given you one minute each. Please keep to the one minute, otherwise we'll be over. Peredur Owen Griffiths.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Institute for Welsh Affairs report released this week made for grim reading. It concluded that Welsh communities are the least empowered in the UK. This was echoed during a conversation I had this week with somebody involved in the efforts to restore the Abertillery Stute, a once magnificent building that has seen better days but could once again be the hub of the community. That person told me that many people they spoke to about the project have been given hope that things could change for the better in that community.

If communities were empowered like they are in Scotland, things might be much different for people, and they may have hope. In Scotland, there is a statutory right to buy community assets when they come up for sale or for transfer, but they don't have anything like that in Wales. Even communities in Tory-governed England have more rights when it comes to community ownership of buildings. If we are to endanger—. Oh, 'endanger'—. If we are to engender healthy, resilient and empowered communities, this anomaly needs rectifying before it's too late. Thank you very much for bringing this debate forward, Rhys. Diolch.

I'd like to say thank you to Rhys for a minute of his time and bringing the important debate to the Senedd today. When I first entered local politics, I did so because I firmly believed in the importance of communities. I recently spoke to a social enterprise in Bethesda who had worked to buy a building of note, to save for the benefit of those living in the area. But, at the last moment, they were gazumped by a private buyer. I would like consideration to be given to local residents to have a say in purchasing such community assets for perhaps converting them into rental properties where their money goes back into the community. I am pleased that Flintshire has been leading the way in this area to help protect community spaces and buildings. Recently, two old school fields have been given over to the local community for play, a safe haven for biodiversity, and for local people to grow vegetables. Once a piece of land is developed, a building demolished or an asset sold, it's lost forever, and we should be doing all we can to help local communities to be a part of securing their public assets for their future generations and well-being in the community. Diolch.

Thank you, Rhys, for giving me an opportunity to speak. As a county borough councillor, one of my biggest ongoing fights throughout my political career, as it were, has been to protect and properly maintain community spaces. Members here may laugh, but one of my most treasured moments as a councillor was when a five-year-old girl and her father came up to me and she thanked me for saving her playground. To many people, it may not seem that important, but, to this little girl, that playground was, and I still hope is, a major positive aspect in her life that will contribute to her feeling that her childhood was a happy one.

The problem we have, as I see it, is that Government and local government in particular see our community spaces as opportunities for development rather than psychologically significant geographical spaces, involving complex relationships of meaning, value and social activity that contribute significantly to our community identity, our community cohesion and to our sense of belonging and feeling a part of a community. Public spaces for many contribute to one's self-definition, both individually and collectively. What this means is that people can identify who I am and who we are by locating themselves within their community spaces. Place identity is recognised as a sub-identity in its own right, and this is inherently connected to how we feel and engage with places that we live. By allowing the destruction of community spaces, we're facilitating a loss of community, and, equally as important, a loss of pride in our communities. We must acknowledge that removing or displacing our community spaces has a profoundly negative impact on individuals and communities, and this is why we see, time and time again, communities, groups, and individuals fighting with every available resource that they have to protect them.

You have a minute and you've gone way over that. You're eating into a colleague's time.

Oh. Yes, I'll close now. There are numerous examples of how public spaces are being lost, which, unfortunately, time doesn't allow me, but I finally want to add that there's no doubt in my mind that the destruction of community spaces is nothing more than a failure of Government to protect the well-being of communities because it not only lacks the desire to do so, but the ambition to do it. Thank you.

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.

Thank you very much, Rhys.

Thank you very much for bringing forward this debate this afternoon.

I want to start by mentioning Penllwyn Park in my constituency in the town of Carmarthen, which is a park owned by Carmarthen Town Council, but, unfortunately, due to littering and glass, they've not been able to open the gates and allow people in there to use it, so those gates are locked, meaning only the football club on a Saturday morning have access to this community space, which I think is a real shame. And echoing Peredur's thoughts on the IWA 'Our Land: Communities and Land Use' report, this is absolutely right, and I'd extend it to the Deputy Minister with regards to tree planting in rural Wales, with the sale of farms and community land and the installation of trees, the afforestation, which causes real concern for a lot of rural Wales. But I will end, just by—. I'm sure it was a lapse of Rhys's memory, but it's not only Scotland that has a community policy, a right-to-bid policy, but also England too, those good old Tories across Offa's Dyke. Diolch.

Thank you to the Member for South Wales Central for giving me one minute in today's short debate, and I must say he did rumble me by saying some Conservatives would be attracted by the title of the debate today, 'Protecting community spaces: taking back control', and say what you like about Rhys ab Owen, and many do, he does know a good slogan when he sees one. [Laughter.] But the Member's faults aside, as outlined by many people in the short debate, it is vitally important that communities are supported in protecting their local community. Whether it is the local pub, the church, the local shop, library, it's crucial that communities are empowered in saving these really important assets from unwanted, unnecessary development. In light of this, I certainly and fully support the calls outlined in the debate and call for measures to support local communities to take back control. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Tom, your colleagues have eaten up your time, but I will give you one minute.

You are a very benevolent Llywydd, thank you very much. Can I start by thanking Rhys ab Owen for bringing this short debate forward today? And he set upon a tactic that I quite like, which is getting seven speakers to contribute to your debate so you don't have to say very much yourself. I have noticed; well done to you. Well done to you, Rhys.

I just wanted to speak in support of that IWA report that we've heard references to throughout, but it's pretty damning, and it's worth repeating that Wales has the least empowered communities in the whole of the UK, and that's really not a statistic to be proud of. The report also talks about a demoralising scenario for groups with little process for communities to take ownership of public or private assets, and, rather than letting community assets and buildings be sold off or run down, we need to ensure Welsh Government does all it can to let those who value the most our communities protect them for generations to come.

It does concern me, though, that the Welsh Government simply doesn't get it. In response to a question from my colleague Mark Isherwood yesterday in First Minister's questions, the First Minister said:

'Our view of it is that a partnership arrangement' comes in place

'with the help of a public body' and I think the First Minister is missing the point completely. Communities and community groups want to operate independently, without the say-so of a public body or of the Welsh Government. So, it's really, really important that they get that, they take that report on board, and I thank Rhys ab Owen once again for bringing this debate forward. 

I call the Deputy Minister for Climate Change to reply to the debate. Lee Waters.

Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thanks to Rhys ab Owen and all the Members who have contributed, showing the great cross-party reach this topic has, and, of course, my colleagues and I recognise the importance of community assets, both buildings and green space, to the communities they serve, and we know these assets are vital as a focus for community activity and as a base for volunteers. And we also recognise the vital contribution of community action to Welsh life and the economy, especially during the pandemic, a time when we saw first-hand the benefit of local green spaces for our health and well-being. We continue to work with our partners to build on this experience, and our programme for government makes clear our commitment to supporting communities.

That is why we've launched the community asset loan fund, which is a £5 million fund that provides loans repayable over 25 years, enabling incorporated voluntary sector groups to purchase community assets. The fund is operated by the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action on behalf of the Welsh Government, and it complements the Welsh Government's well-established community facilities programme, which provides grants of up to £250,000 to help local voluntary sector organisations purchase or improve community assets. The grants are available to groups that own or lease facilities.

The aim of the programme is to ensure that well-used and much-needed facilities are sustainable, both financially and environmentally, and fit for the future, and we're investing too in programmes like the local places for nature scheme, and others provide grants to communities who want to improve their local green spaces. The grant allows communities to plan what they want to see improved and that will make a difference for them. The funding is supporting projects for new orchards, wildflower meadows, community food growing, pollinator gardens, green walls and small areas of woodland. And we'll be investing another £9.2 million into this programme in the coming financial year to support nature at this local level, providing benefits to our communities. Community assets, such as green spaces and buildings, are vital to the health and well-being of our communities, and we will support their ownership, working with partners, to deliver the recommendations of our research into community asset transfers. There's much to reflect on in that.

There's also feedback to us, partly as a result of the WCVA's community foresight project, which set out a number of ways that communities can be further empowered to create change and the importance of local action, and there is a consensus in that on how the policy needs to change and a new community policy needs to be forged. And we are keen—. I hear what Members said about the IWA report, and there is much in there that we can agree on, I think, and I'd be very keen to seek out cross-party consensus for the elements of that that we can all agree on, to take forward and build on in the future, because, clearly, this is an area where there is much agreement. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you, everyone, and that brings today's proceedings to a close.

The meeting ended at 18:48.