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Hywel Williams : Is the hon. Lady aware that the Minister, in replying to me a few weeks ago, said that long-distance travel, say from her constituency to London, is specifically excluded from the Transport (Wales) Bill? How does she react to that?
Mrs. Williams: I said that in my preamble; perhaps the hon. Gentleman was not listening, but if he cares to read Hansard tomorrow he will be able to confirm that.
Over the past eight years, the Government have achieved a lot for the people of Wales, and I believe that they can offer a lot more in the future. The introduction of the child trust fund—my son and daughter-in-law very much welcomed that when their first child was born, and I was very proud, as well as becoming a grandmother for the first time—and further improvements to the tax credit system will be of great benefit to hard-working families in my constituency. The Government will continue the work of moving children and older people out of poverty.
Further investment in getting more police officers on to the streets and tackling antisocial behaviour will continue to help people regain control of our towns and villages. With youth unemployment all but wiped out in my constituency, we need to increase the help available to those on incapacity benefit to return to work. As is the case in so much of Wales, I have many constituents who have suffered industrial injuries and who feel marginalised from economic prosperity. We must step up our work to end that marginalisation, through programmes to help them back to employment or to benefits of a level that allow them to live with dignity.
It is vital that time is found in the next Parliament for legislation that will build on the steps already taken by this Government to make Wales a fairer, safer and more prosperous place.
8.7 pm
Mr. Elfyn Llwyd (Meirionnydd Nant Conwy) (PC): I hope in the few minutes allowed to refer to themes that are important to me and my party—affordable housing and safer communities. We have already had a discussion about law and order, and I hope later to come on to that. I shall not fan the flames or try to whip up any antipathy, but shall instead speak from the experience that I have gained as a practitioner in law and from what I have seen over the past two or three years in various parts of Wales.
I shall refer first to affordable housing. I am pleased that we are able to discuss it now in a far more mature way than we were able to do before the last election. Indeed, I have gratefully accepted an opportunity to speak with the Under-Secretary of State on Wednesday about a discussion document that we issued in January. It contains various pointers that we hope will inform the argument and may bring about a better climate for young people in particular, and for everyone in general so that everyone can afford a roof above their head.
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Ordinary people trying to set up home in Wales are obviously hampered by the huge rise in prices. There is no doubt that the rising cost of private rentals has also made life difficult for many people. Prices have soared. Many first-time buyers, or hopeful first-time buyers, are unable to secure mortgages to buy property. That is a fairly obvious point.What is not quite so obvious is that house prices in Wales rose by 124 per cent. between 1997 and 2004. Significantly, 82 per cent. of that growth occurred between 2001 and 2004. The increase in prices was a modest 1.1 per cent. between 1997 and 1998, which was well within inflation. There was a 5 per cent. rise from 1998 to 1999, which was a warning, and then there were 9 per cent. and 6 per cent. rises. The trend has emerged: Welsh prices have outpaced the UK average. The shortage of affordable housing has spread not only to rural retreats but to city hotspots and to the valleys. Prices have doubled in Pembrokeshire in the past three years.
What can be done about that? I am not professing to have all the answers, but I think that my colleagues and I have come up with a few that might be interesting and worthy of further consideration. I will be giving a copy of our document to the Minister on Wednesday. It was issued for consultation in January, and hitherto the feedback has been fairly positive. We have engaged with many societies and individuals on the issue. Decent housing does not have to be beyond anyone's reach—action by various levels of government could and should make a real difference to the amount and range of affordable housing in Wales, including social housing. By using its budgetary and planning regulatory powers, and working with local authorities, the Assembly could give practical support to community housing initiatives, safeguard communities and help councils to enhance local housing resources.
I shall refer to one or two measures. For example, there is the approach of establishing a community land trust unit within the Assembly. With its own budget line, its functions would include assisting community land trusts with set-up costs and advice, guaranteeing low-cost loans to support community ownership of clusters of homes and/or the purchase of land on which to build them. Local authorities could be allowed to prioritise local housing needs and the authorities could be granted the right in certain circumstances to take a percentage of the enhanced land value as planning gain when developers apply for change of use. Also, and importantly, local authorities could be encouraged to require a percentage of affordable homes in all new developments of more than 10 homes.
That is being done on an ad hoc basis in some council areas. I would like to see it spread as good practice throughout Wales. We would also like to see support for council tenants who wish to buy in the private sector. Crucially, we would like councils to be given the right not to implement the right to buy. We would like more support for the homebuy initiative, and that is really a cry for more money. It is quite a good scheme that is worked through the Welsh Assembly Government. It needs more funding if it is to make a real impact but it is a good start. We want a benchmark for more affordable homes and to identify surplus land owned by public bodies that could be suitable to use for the building of those homes.
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We want to stop the decline in social housing. As tenants have exercised their right to buy council homes the stock has shrunk considerably, with local authorities now possessing precious little social housing. One of the obvious answers is to support housing investment by councils. There is little indication at present that that will happen. On the contrary, the Treasury has made it clear that it will not even allow local authorities to set up companies that could borrow for the purpose of investing in housing. The UK Treasury has turned down an Assembly request to allow wholly owned local authority companies in Wales. It has advised the Welsh Minister with responsibilities for social justice and regeneration that despite a good case outlining the benefits and the limited effect on public borrowing of the proposal, it would not be acceptable because it would lead to further pressure on public expenditure limits.
Establishing a public investment trust to raise finance for Welsh housing could circumvent Treasury restrictions. If it were set up, for example, on lines similar to Glas Cymru, the company that owns Welsh water, the trust would probably succeed. I believe that that is a thought worth pursuing.
I will not shy away from the fact that there needs to be a firmer approach to second homes. I have argued long and hard about the issue. It does not matter who buys second homes—whether it is a Welsh speaker from Cardiff or someone from Peking, those homes are empty for most of the year. They contribute to the run-down of local services, of the chapels, of churches, of schools, of shops, of public transport and of the local pub, for example. They are a social problem. Let us not beat about the bush. I would like to ensure—I introduced a Bill on the issue back in 1993—that where there is a substantial number of second homes, the local planning authority should be able to bring in change-of-use criteria, under which someone who wanted to purchase a second home in the area would have to check with the council to ascertain whether the percentage of second homes that it allows in the locality had been reached.
That is not unfair to the prospective purchasers. They would know precisely where they stood. There are linguistically sensitive areas, such as places that my hon. Friend the Member for Caernarfon (Hywel Williams) and I represent, where the percentage of second homes might be quite low. However, even within my constituency at Aberdyfi, there are a huge number already. I am not proposing cutting down on them, but I am saying that for future development we must take into account what is sustainable in any given community. Very often, there is an absence of use of local services, and clearly there will be a deleterious effect upon the Welsh language and culture.
There has been some movement on council tax, but I believe that we must bite the bullet and examine planning restrictions. At the end of the day, the Welsh language belongs to every one of us in this place, and beyond to everybody in Britain. We must protect it, and I have outlined one way of doing so. I think that it is a positive way forward. It will not pull the wool over anyone's eyes if we adopt this approach. Interestingly enough, I spoke with a Cabinet Minister about the proposal before the last election. He shall remain nameless, but he was fully persuaded of the "use clause"
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idea. Unfortunately, it became a minority opinion in the Cabinet at the time and did not succeed. I honestly believe that it is worth having another look at it.
I have referred to community land trusts. Something like that is happening in my home village of Llanuwchllyn, where a group of youngsters have got together. Rather than just complaining from the sidelines, they are looking for spare land. They are coming close to doing a deal with the local council for that land to be transferred to the trust at nil or nominal value. It is to be hoped that affordable homes will be built on that land, initially to let or as a "part buy" for local youngsters who are unable to get into the housing market.
I shall give the House a snapshot. Some so-called affordable housing was built in Llanuwchllyn. It consisted of nice little starter homes. They were semi-detached with small gardens and they were selling for £168,000. One couple came to me and the young lady was in tears. She has a good teaching job—indeed, both she and her husband-to-be have good jobs as he is a farmer and does some other work as well. However, when their joint income was totalled it was clear that they did not have a snowball's chance in hell of obtaining a mortgage, even at four and a half times their joint salary. They were totally out of it. Even with the homebuy contribution from Cardiff it still would not work.
The issue is critical and, if we are to serve the needs of our constituents, we need to get together to try to come up with some answers. I am sure that that is not beyond us if we pool our skills, lobby at the necessary levels of government and get something going. We cannot sit back and do nothing—that would be to abrogate a serious responsibility to the people of Wales.
I have referred to affordable housing and I shall now move on to safer communities. We hear often that social housing leads to crime—no, social exclusion leads to crime, but also partly social housing—
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