It isn't the same problem. Targets have actually been reached a lot easier in England than they have here. Approximately 67,000 people—I'll say it again: 67,000 people—in Wales languish on a social-housing waiting list, equivalent to around 20,000 households. Four of our local authorities saw a cumulative total of 14,240 young people in the 20 to 29 age group leave Wales between 2012 and 2016, meaning that these young people have not only lost the opportunity to own a home in Wales, but we have lost the opportunity to have these young people contributing to our economy and our society.

However, the biggest gamble for me is to learn that the local authority spend associated with temporary accommodation and homelessness is simply spiralling out of control. In my own authority, we've seen this spend balloon from £1.2 million in 2019-20 to £2.5 million in 2020-21, and it's perceived to be around £4 million next time. While, in Wales, between 2019-20 and 20-21, spending has more than doubled, from just over £7 million to over £15.5 million. This spending is a symptom of the fact that more and more individuals and families are having to live in B&Bs, hotel rooms and temporary accommodation. 

Now, according to the Welsh Government's most recent figures, there are over 7,000 people that have been pushed into homelessness and living in temporary accommodation, and nearly 100 people forced to sleep rough. We have thousands of empty properties across Wales laying vacant—22,140, in fact—and what does the Welsh Government go and do? The empty homes loan saw only four properties in the constituency of the Minister for housing brought back into use in 2020-21, just two in Cardiff and only one in Neath Port Talbot. Other figures obtained show that the Welsh Government simply does not have a grip on our local authorities and any initiative to see empty properties brought back into use.

The Minister will know that I've also raised the prospect of bringing into use some of the land and buildings owned by the public sector in Wales. Our local authorities, our health boards and other public bodies are sitting on swathes of land and buildings and brownfield sites that could be turned around into liveable homes. I raised this with the Minister in the cross-party group, and this was a cross-party group that was arranged so that we could actually face the housing crisis down, cross-party political. It seems that, I'm afraid, we seem to have been dropped from that agenda. Our plans would be to bring empty homes back into housing stock, to build more homes, using public sector-owned land and brownfield sites to develop into homes. Sadly, after us setting off on this journey on a cross-party basis, you've allowed your co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru to dictate this agenda. Your intention to single out second home owners and to target holiday home owners is only going to succeed in punishing the aspiration, ambition and achievement of these individuals, who actually contribute widely to our local economy.

Now, as I said earlier, we have almost the same number of empty homes as we do second homes in Wales. So, to simply target second home owners with a punitive council tax increase, potentially up to a 300 per cent increase, is unfair, disproportionate and prejudicial. Even in your own report commissioned on second homes, Dr Brooks stated that:

'If there were fewer second homes, this would not change the fact that local buyers would have to compete with buyers from outside the area'.

And let's be honest, Members, the fact remains that the average median wage in Wales is considerably less than in England, so it is therefore simply no contest. 

Now, another issue that I and my colleagues has raised is phosphate regulations, the fact that there are 10,000 homes ripe for development simply being held up by planning guidelines introduced by Natural Resources Wales for special areas of conservation near rivers. My colleague James Evans MS and I have met with council leaders, planners, and I have met with housing providers, who genuinely believe there is some merit to the spirit of the guidelines, but, in reality, they are seeing the obstruction of these 10,000 properties coming forward for development. This situation has dragged on for over a year and definitely needs addressing. So, I would ask the Minister, wherever the Minister is—[Interruption.] Oh, okay. [Laughter.] Okay.