We're also very keen on things like access to green space. So, even if you are in an apartment, you should still have access to green space outside. We're looking at encouraging all social landlords—councils and housing associations—to ensure access to green space, even if it's not a private garden, nevertheless good access is part of—we all know, as part of the pandemic—is very much part of your well-being in living in that house.

In terms of other services, absolutely, we will look at that, but I'm not sure that we'd want a house to fail the WHQS because the bus service outside it isn't up to scratch, although obviously in a different part of my portfolio we're very keen on improving public services, such as bus services and so on. But I'm certainly prepared to look at what can be done to encourage social landlords to put pressure on service companies to bring other services to bear. Things like access to local amenities, actually right down to shops and leisure facilities, is one of the things that does make housing more acceptable. But this is much more about the fabric of the home, really, and we know, from the analysis we've done of housing association and council tenants satisfaction surveys and other things, that things like noise and flooring and that kind of stuff are very high up on tenants' wish lists, and so that's why it's included in the standard.

The rent equation that you brought up is a very interesting one as well. Every time we do the rent equation for social landlords in Wales we have this terrible dilemma to make it affordable, but to make sure that the rental stream for those landlords is sufficient, both to retrofit their housing and to build the new housing that we need. And the rental stream, of course, is what drives the ability to borrow from the local housing associations, and so it's a very difficult equation, isn't it, about affordability and not affordability.

But there are some political points here to make, I'm afraid, as well. The freezing of the local housing allowance by the current UK Government has been seriously detrimental, not only to the tenants who are stuck in lowering ability to claim benefit in the private rented sector, but actually to the ability of people to afford housing across Wales. So, these political choices are really problematic. I have written several times to the Minister complaining that the hidden cut of the freezing of the local housing allowance is having a very detrimental effect, not only on individuals, but on the ability to plan for housing in general. So, just to make that point. 

In terms of construction costs, in terms of new build, we've already assisted by putting up the way that we manipulate our social housing grant and the way that we get the affordability envelope to look for new build. We've adjusted that to account for construction costs. We will be looking to do that for retrofit as well, but, again, one of the points to be made here is that you pay VAT on refurbishment, whereas you don't pay it on new build. And so one of the things we really, really hope the UK Government will take on board is what a disincentive having VAT on refurbishment is, and how against the whole climate change agenda it is to incentivise knocking something down and building a new one instead of refurbishing an old building, and what a stimulation for the economy it would be to look again at VAT on refurbishments. So, that's something we've also—. Rebecca Evans and I have written a number of times on the nonsense of making refurbishments subject to VAT. So, these things are complex financial equations at all times and that's not helping.

But overall, what we're doing is we're getting the standard right first, and then looking at the time period and the financing model. So, I think, the standard is the most important thing here, but we do have access to finance. We have access to the old what's called MRA, so the major repairs allowance for local authorities, and what's called dowry, which is the local stock voluntary transfer moneys that were paid when our local authorities externalised their housing stock a decade or more ago now, and that money has been kept in the budgets and is still available for the Welsh housing quality standard. That's how we funded the first iteration as well. So, that money is there, Mabon, and we are looking at innovative financing ways of making that go as far as possible as well.

And then, the last thing I just wanted to say was about broadband access. You make a very good point there. It's not just about the infrastructure, though, for broadband, it's about the affordability of the broadband provision. We have been encouraging both local housing associations and local authorities to look at bulk purchasing arrangements or Wi-Fi arrangements and so on. So, it's not just about the fabric of the house allowing the broadband, it's about the affordability of the available broadband package and what it's used for and so on. So, that's certainly in our sights. We still have a large number of white premises dotted around the rural countryside, so one of the things that we can do is use our social housing to bring pressure to bear on making sure those services are improved in that area. So, I definitely have that in my sights as well, although, again, it's not necessarily about the fabric of the house, is it, it's about the availability of the external infrastructure. So, I very much welcome your contribution, and I'm looking forward to the submission you'll make, I'm sure, in response to the consultation.