Diolch, Dirprwy Llywydd. Can I begin my contribution by thanking John Griffiths for his committee's really hard work in putting this together and then for bringing the motion forward today, and also thank all Members for their contributions to this very important debate? This is clearly a topic that people feel very passionately about.

Community assets have featured in debates in this Chamber on a number of occasions this year, clearly reflecting the importance of assets and services delivered within communities. And the communities themselves are, of course, one of our greatest assets in Wales, and central to our policies and our commitments in the programme for government. Our communities policy board continues to develop policy to empower our communities in key policy areas. Their current work will help us to ensure that we have identified the right community stakeholders to feed into this specific work around community ownership of assets.

Land and property assets enable our communities to have more control over services and facilities within their communities and are of huge importance to the foundational economy. I therefore warmly welcome the report and the recommendations from the Local Government and Housing Committee. I and my Cabinet colleagues, Rebecca Evans and Jane Hutt, have accepted, in principle or in actuality, the majority of the recommendations, as everyone has reflected. We have rejected only one, and that was recommendation 14—as a number of people have mentioned—that we'd establish a specific a Welsh fund for community housing projects. And the rejection is because we think our current approach is already designed to meet the objective of the recommendation. The reason we think that is because we are following the independent review of affordable housing supply recommendations from 2019 that we streamline programmes for affordable housing, and I accepted that recommendation. So, we've taken action to progress that recommendation and continue to explore ways to make funding available specifically for community-led housing developments.

Currently, we are working closely with Cwmpas on a scheme for a community land trust in Swansea. If their application for funding from the land and buildings development fund is successful, my officials will then assure that this mechanism can be used much more widely to support community-led housing projects. The fund offers an opportunity for community-led groups to access funding for early-stage work, such as site feasibility studies and option appraisals, which we have heard is a particular barrier they face. And I look forward to being able to report progress to committee, as that pilot develops. I strongly believe that partnership working is the way forward. By working in partnership with registered social landlords, community-led housing groups can also access a social housing grant. This approach also gives the community group access to the technical and professional expertise that they otherwise struggle to secure.

Turning to the other committee recommendations, they are clearly very far reaching. Our support package for community groups is a framework of guidance, funding and other support, much of which is provided by third sector partners, such as Cwmpas, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and the Community Land Advisory Service. The recommendation that a commission be established to look in more depth at some of the barriers on how we give support recognises the complexity and importance of communities being involved in ownership or management of assets in their communities. And a little later, I will discuss the need to consider the form and scope of the commission and to consider who its support arrangements will draw on and who will be the most important stakeholders. We fully support our communities where ownership is appropriate, but this isn't always the best option, especially in economically challenging times. Alternative models can be equally empowering and by accepting the recommendations that we establish a peer network and collate case studies, we can share different experiences and learning and make sure that, in all our approaches, Dirprwy Lywydd, we do not have a one-size-fits-all approach. 

The recommendations also include a call for more guidance on social value, particularly how this can be reflected in the price community groups pay for assets. I recognise that this is seen as a major barrier to making transfers affordable to community groups. We do, however, provide generous grants and loans to communities to enable communities to buy assets. We've already invested £46.4 million in grants to 369 projects since 2015 and we've committed £19 million more in the next three years; £5 million is also available from the community loan fund run for us by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. Each gives community groups access to up to £300,000 to purchase assets. Our guidance review will reflect on social value, including the research undertaken by Compass Cymru in connection with public procurement.

Social value is inherent in our statutory commitment in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and of course I accept the recommendation that this should be much more explicit in our guidance. This and other ongoing work around social value and sustainability will help us to act on this recommendation within the time frame the committee has set for us. Stakeholder engagement will be vital to producing guidance to meet the committee's expectations and I can confirm that officials have already started work on this. So, I can absolutely assure you this is not an attempt to kick it into the long grass—I'm very, very keen to make this happen. 

One of the most persistent barriers highlighted in the evidence presented to the committee was the lack of data available to the public. Our data-mapping platform, DataMapWales, is already available to registered users free of charge, but at the current time only shows publicly owned land. Officials are currently working with DataMapWales with a view to including the data held by HM Land Registry on privately owned land. This will increase the data to cover approximately 87 per cent of land. The land registry are also aiming to register all land by 2030, which will provide us with the data for full coverage on our mapping platforms.

The committee has recommended that a commission be established to consider a number of the 16 recommendations they have made, and I absolutely welcome this approach. This is a complex area in which there are many interests and perspectives and some difficult and persistent barriers that need to be considered in really great detail. The nature of the commission, its membership and terms of reference will be critical if the commission is to find workable solutions that empower community groups, and it is very important that stakeholders, including communities themselves, have a say in this. And as I say, work has already commenced.

So, a number of Members raised a point about the timing of this. So, just to say that we are already doing a lot of the work. The reason it's 'in principle' is that we're not doing it in quite the way that the committee set out, but we have already started it. A big issue for us will be how to get communities involved in setting up the terms of reference and the scope and size and membership of the commission. I'm very happy for Members to be involved in that or indeed for the committee to make further recommendations, John, if that's seen as appropriate. 

We'll want to ask the commission to look at how communities can be given more equal opportunities when competing against private investors, again, as a number of people, Mabon particularly, mentioned, and a number of others did. This includes consideration of whether legislation would be appropriate for Wales. So, it's very important that the commission considers the evidence of how effective the legislation has been in genuinely empowering committees where legislation has been introduced, and we are commissioning an independent review of the legislation in Scotland and England to assist the commission in its work. But, absolutely, it's not off the table. If that's what the commission recommends going forward, then we'd be very happy with that. We want to assist them to do that piece of work.

So, alongside the other pilots that have been undertaken through our communities policy board, this will provide evidence to enable the commission to consider whether similar provisions would benefit the communities in Wales. The committee has quite rightly challenged us to make asset transfers easier for our communities. It is important that we ensure those asset transfers are sustainable and enhance the resilience of our communities. And I very much thank the committee for their recommendations and I'm very happy to take this work forward alongside the committee and other Members with an interest. Diolch.