I'd just remind Members to refer to my own declaration of interests form in terms of property ownership.

Now, these regulations stem from failure. Failure by successive Welsh Labour Governments to provide new homes: only 4,616 new dwellings completed in 2021, when the figure should have been 12,000. Failure to get empty homes back into use: there were 25,725 in 2017-18, 22,140 in 2022-23. Failure to ensure that Wales uses the planning levers that it already has to provide homes, not hotels, for our locals. There are over 7,000 people that have been pushed into homelessness and now living in temporary accommodation.

Now, from my own reading of the explanatory memorandum, the only positive impact that these regulations will have is that they will contribute towards the commitment in the updated programme for government 2021-26 to seek to review council tax, and they will contribute to the objective in the co-operation agreement to provide greater powers to local authorities to charge council tax premiums whilst increasing taxes on second homes.

The discretion given to local authorities to charge a premium is intended to be a tool to help local authorities to bring back long-term empty homes, and support local authorities in increasing the supply of affordable housing. However, there is absolutely no clarification as to how any extra revenue will be spent. As the explanatory memorandum makes clear, local authorities can use the funds as they see fit. In fact, there is clear lack of appetite and support for your proposals, and I think my colleague Rhys ab Owen MS there has just said about the 1,000 people out of 3.1 million who have responded and the proportion of those who are obviously against this, so it does beg the question why you seek to pursue this. To date, only half the authorities have chosen to apply premiums to long-term empty or second homes or both. Only 30 per cent of long-term empty dwellings in 2022-23 will pay a premium, and the majority of responses to the consultation did not support an increase in the maximum premium, so if you're going to ignore a consultation, what is the very point of it? You're just going to ignore the majority view.

Importantly, the consultation yielded limited evidence that stakeholders believe that increasing the maximum percentage could have a positive effect in addressing the issues presented by second homes. What we have here is a set of regulations that you and your coalition—oh, co-operation—partners in Plaid Cymru want, to try and make people think that you are fighting for more homes for local people. However, the reality is that this strategy is merely a facade to failure and flawed policy by socialists and anti—[Interruption.] Hang on. Hey, hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I haven't finished yet. Anti-visitor nationalists. [Interruption.] And your pandering to Plaid comes at a great cost—administrative costs to the Welsh Government, tax collection, enforcement, complaints handling, costs to local authorities, and a cost to actual equality.

I was astounded to read the claim in the explanatory memorandum that the policy will contribute to a more equal Wales. There is absolutely nothing equal about the 300 per cent premium at all, and I would ask—as has been asked of me so many times—why did you suddenly pluck the figure of 300 per cent out of the air? That question—. What evidence, what data, what have you used, what information have you used, to just pluck that figure? You are punishing second home owners and feeding the fire of anti-visitor rhetoric in our nation. The Welsh Conservatives will be voting against these dangerous regulations today, and we will continue to champion the clear policies that we have been proposing since the start of the Senedd to ensure that we build homes—and, yes, homes—for local people. I ask the Senedd, or Welsh Parliament, to say 'no' to this false facade by Welsh Labour and Plaid, and to give other solutions a chance. 

No. 1: let's address affordability by building more homes, with an emphasis on generating mixed communities. Two: remove the block on as many as 10,000 new homes, including 1,700 affordable, due to really inordinate Natural Resources Wales guidance on phosphorus. Three: work with our local authorities to better promote the empty homes loan. Four: review what steps can be taken to convert empty space above retail units into affordable, centrally located houses. Five: bring back into use public sector owned land and buildings that are spread across Wales that could actually be brought back into making good housing for those people who require them. Six: amend technical advice note 6 to allow for children of farmers who live at home but work elsewhere to more easily gain planning permission to build homes on family land. And seven: restore the right to buy in Wales, building houses for locals on the edge of communities, reinvesting sale proceeds into more social housing, and, if you protect those homes from sale for 10 years, you will actually have some good—[Interruption.]