Diolch yn fawr, Mabon. Just to say, I agree with much of what you say, in terms of the detrimental effect of poor housing on health. There's much evidence to show that housing is one of the most fundamental things that can improve quality of life and quality of health, so I absolutely agree with you there. One of the reasons we did the Welsh housing quality standard in the first place was to ensure that the social housing stock was brought to the right standard.

You may know—it has been the subject of other statements here on the floor—that we're currently looking at the regulatory framework for social landlords in Wales, with a view to making sure that landlords maintain their housing stock to the level that we want, as part of the regulatory framework. So, we'll be bringing that back to the floor of the Senedd in due course—not very long, I hope—to do that. We want the Welsh housing quality standard maintained at its current level, but then, Mabon, you will also have heard me say that, in the new year, we'll be bringing forward the next iteration of the Welsh housing quality standard to get up to the next level. We're currently in discussion with all of our social landlords about how to do that, so the social sector is then covered.

You'll be aware that we're about to implement the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, subject to the Senedd agreeing the various regulations that are still to go through. I find myself touching wood at this point in time—it has been a long time coming. But, of course, the whole point of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 is to have houses in the private rented sector that are fit for human habitation, and that includes the issues that you raised. One of the reasons that we’ve stepped in to correct some of the UK Government’s schemes, which were cavity wall insulation schemes, generally speaking, is because they have caused real mould and damp. That is the problem when cavity wall insulation goes wrong. Actually, that just demonstrates why we’re doing the optimised retrofit, because lots of cavity wall insulation has been installed across Wales with really good effect. We always talk about the ones that have gone wrong, but it’s just that one size doesn’t fit all. So, in some houses it’s great, cavity wall insulation, if it’s correctly installed and it’s the right kind of house for it and it doesn’t soak up damp into the cavity and all the rest of it. In other homes, it’s proved a very poor, retrograde step, and that’s why we wanted to have this optimised retrofit programme, or the deep retrofitting as it’s called elsewhere, because we are absolutely looking at each type of house in Wales and we are absolutely trialling out a series of techs on an iterative learn and process programme to figure out for each sort of housing that we have in Wales, including the old housing stock and the listed buildings, what will work, what can bring that particular type of house up to the best standard it can get—that might not be A; that might be C—and then what to do with those types of houses that can only be brought to that level. I’m very fortunate in some ways, as I live in a very, very old house, and it’s a privilege to do so. I regard it as a trust for future generations. But, of course, it’s much harder to retrofit such houses, but they’re part of our culture and heritage. It’s an old Gower farmhouse. These things are important for other reasons as well, so it’s important to get this right.

Then, just to reassure, ORP is a collaboration between me and the Minister for Economy and the Minister for Education, because we are very aware that not only does it bring the houses up to standard once we’ve got all the tech sorted out, but also it allows us to skill the people who are fitting the technology that’s necessary. There’s a whole range of technology there, so we would be working with our FE colleges to make sure that people coming forward who want to do gas boiler fitting, for example, are also being trained to put in a whole variety of other methodologies, and then we will be talking about a reskilling programme as we come away from gas boilers for all of the people out there who currently work in that industry to be able to put in air-source heat pumps, ground-source heat pumps and a whole variety of other things that are available.

And, as I said in my statement, one of the last pieces then is the owner-occupied section. We’re talking to the Development Bank of Wales now as we’re starting to be able to roll out ORP about what set of grants and loans will be appropriate for owner-occupiers, and what advice we can give them through the energy advice service. So, I think we’re very much on the same page apart from that last sentence, which I’ll persist in believing.