English: Can I say how glad I am that housing is being discussed so early in this Assembly term? To many of my constituents, housing is incredibly important. Many are inadequately housed, in temporary accommodation or homeless. We also know that household size has decreased, with more people in single-person households, and it's a trend likely to continue. Far too many houses are empty, not enough council housing is being built, we have seen the return of leasehold and high maintenance charges, and we are seeing estates built with their roads and pavements not up to adoptable standard. According to data obtained by ITN news in 2018, there were 43,000 empty homes in Wales, with at least 18,000 empty for more than six months. These include all sorts of properties, including some in the most sought-after areas. I have no reason to believe that this number has reduced over the last three years. Empty homes are a wasted resource at a time of substantial housing demand. They can also cause a range of social and environmental problems. They can lead to vandalism, crime, anti-social behaviour, drug abuse, as well as other issues, such as overgrown gardens, unsteady boundary fences and damp. They also represent, more importantly, a potential housing resource that is currently underutilised. Bringing empty homes back into use can help address a number of housing and social issues by increasing supply in areas where there are housing shortages. There are two ways of increasing the building of new houses in Wales. One is to abandon all planning controls and let the market decide where houses can be built, which is effectively what happened before the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. This will lead to building in areas that are currently protected. The second way is to have large-scale council house building, as we did in the post-war years prior to 1979. Both strategies worked previously; there's no reason why these strategies would not work again. I just think the second strategy is a far, far better strategy than the first. We need more social housing. Affordable housing should mean council housing and housing association housing. Rather than an all-Wales target, we need to have targets for each local authority area so that local needs can be met. The only time since the second world war when sufficient housing was being built was when large council housing estates were being built the length and breadth of Wales. We must build enough affordable homes to meet Wales's projected housing needs over the next five years. This should be achieved through the empowerment of local councils to make full use of their borrowing powers and borrowing capacity to build homes and bring back empty homes into use for social rent. Housing associations and councils that do not have stock transfer should have a common waiting list and also have a transfer system between them. This would help people move from large houses to smaller houses as they get older, without having the problem of their not being able to transfer and having to reapply. This really is something that would work. Lots of people - the family home is there, the family have left, it's one person left in it, it's a three- or four-bedroomed house, it's totally unsuitable, they want to move, but finding somewhere for them to move is very difficult and, consequently, we end up with a situation where we have families living in very poor accommodation and people who want to move out unable to move into smaller accommodation. We need to cap social rent at the consumer price index of inflation, so that rents do not outpace wages or benefits. And it's important to make the point that housing policy and a building skills policy must be better linked in Wales, otherwise there will be nobody available to build or assemble the homes we want or to retrofit the ones we already have. There's a lot of work to be done in housing. We need the skills to do it. We need a coherent integrated policy for housing, ensuring we have skilled workers to build the houses. The commitment of councils to build houses: funding for council house development, including using prudential borrowing and borrowing against the value of council stock. Developing co-operative housing: I've written about this in great detail, but we are well behind the rest of the world in producing co-operative housing. More importantly, the political will to tackle the housing shortage. Everyone deserves a decent home; it's up to us to ensure that everyone has a decent home, and I would urge the Welsh Government to set about a strategy that gets people into houses. And the building of council houses has one other effect: it does bring back some of the houses that are privately rented into owner-occupation. So, it's a win-win for everybody.
Welsh: A gaf fi ddweud mor falch wyf fi fod tai'n cael eu trafod mor gynnar yn nhymor y Cynulliad hwn? I lawer o fy etholwyr, mae tai'n eithriadol o bwysig. Mae llawer ohonynt heb fod wedi'u cartrefu'n addas, mewn llety dros dro neu'n ddigartref. Gwyddom hefyd fod maint aelwydydd wedi lleihau, gyda mwy o bobl ar aelwydydd un person, ac mae'n duedd sy'n debygol o barhau. Mae llawer gormod o dai'n wag, nid oes digon o dai cyngor yn cael eu hadeiladu, rydym wedi gweld lesddaliad a thaliadau cynnal a chadw uchel yn dychwelyd, ac rydym yn gweld ystadau'n cael eu hadeiladu gyda'u ffyrdd a'u palmentydd nad ydynt yn cyrraedd safon y gellir eu mabwysiadu. Yn ôl data a gafwyd gan newyddion ITN yn 2018, roedd 43,000 o gartrefi gwag yng Nghymru, gydag o leiaf 18,000 wedi bod yn wag am fwy na chwe mis. Mae'r rhain yn cynnwys pob math o eiddo, gan gynnwys rhai yn yr ardaloedd mwyaf poblogaidd. Nid oes gennyf reswm i gredu bod y nifer hwn wedi gostwng dros y tair blynedd diwethaf. Mae cartrefi gwag yn adnodd gwastraffus ar adeg pan fo galw sylweddol am dai. Gallant hefyd achosi amrywiaeth o broblemau cymdeithasol ac amgylcheddol. Gallant arwain at fandaliaeth, troseddu, ymddygiad gwrthgymdeithasol, camddefnyddio cyffuriau, yn ogystal â phroblemau eraill, megis gerddi wedi gordyfu, ffensys terfyn ansefydlog a lleithder. Yn fwy pwysig, maent hefyd yn adnodd tai posibl nad yw'n cael ei ddefnyddio'n ddigonol ar hyn o bryd. Gall sicrhau bod cartrefi gwag yn cael eu defnyddio eto helpu i fynd i'r afael â nifer o broblemau tai a phroblemau cymdeithasol drwy gynyddu'r cyflenwad mewn ardaloedd lle ceir prinder tai. Ceir dwy ffordd o gynyddu'r gwaith o adeiladu tai newydd yng Nghymru. Un yw rhoi'r gorau i'r holl reolaeth gynllunio a gadael i'r farchnad benderfynu ble y gellir adeiladu tai, sef yr hyn a ddigwyddai i bob pwrpas cyn Deddf Cynllunio Gwlad a Thref 1947. Bydd hyn yn arwain at adeiladu mewn ardaloedd sydd wedi'u diogelu ar hyn o bryd. Yr ail ffordd yw adeiladu tai cyngor ar raddfa fawr, fel y gwnaethom yn y blynyddoedd wedi'r rhyfel cyn 1979. Gweithiodd y ddwy strategaeth yn flaenorol; nid oes unrhyw reswm pam na fyddai'r strategaethau hyn yn gweithio eto. Credaf fod yr ail strategaeth yn strategaeth well o lawer na'r gyntaf. Mae arnom angen mwy o dai cymdeithasol. Dylai tai fforddiadwy olygu tai cyngor a thai cymdeithasau tai. Yn hytrach na tharged ar gyfer Cymru gyfan, mae angen inni gael targedau ar gyfer pob ardal awdurdod lleol fel y gellir diwallu anghenion lleol. Yr unig adeg ers yr ail ryfel byd pan oedd digon o dai'n cael eu hadeiladu oedd pan oedd ystadau tai cyngor mawr yn cael eu hadeiladu ar hyd a lled Cymru. Rhaid inni adeiladu digon o dai fforddiadwy i ddiwallu'r angen rhagamcanol am dai yng Nghymru dros y pum mlynedd nesaf. Dylid cyflawni hyn drwy rymuso cynghorau lleol i wneud defnydd llawn o'u pwerau benthyca a'u gallu benthyca i adeiladu cartrefi a sicrhau bod cartrefi gwag yn cael eu defnyddio eto ar gyfer rhent cymdeithasol. Dylai fod gan gymdeithasau tai a chynghorau sydd heb stoc wedi'i throsglwyddo restr aros gyffredin a hefyd system drosglwyddo rhyngddynt. Byddai hyn yn helpu pobl i symud o dai mawr i dai llai wrth iddynt fynd yn hŷn, heb orfod wynebu'r broblem o fethu trosglwyddo a gorfod ailymgeisio. Yn sicr, mae hyn yn rhywbeth a fyddai'n gweithio. Mae llawer o bobl - mae cartref y teulu yno, mae'r teulu wedi gadael, mae un person ar ôl ynddo, mae'n dŷ tair neu bedair ystafell wely, mae'n gwbl anaddas, maent eisiau symud, ond mae dod o hyd i rywle iddynt symud iddo'n anodd iawn ac o ganlyniad, mae gennym sefyllfa lle mae gennym deuluoedd yn byw mewn cartref gwael iawn a phobl sydd eisiau symud yn methu symud i gartref llai. Rhaid inni gapio rhent cymdeithasol yn ôl mynegai prisiau defnyddwyr o chwyddiant, fel nad yw rhenti'n codi'n gyflymach na chyflogau neu fudd-daliadau. Ac mae'n bwysig gwneud y pwynt fod yn rhaid cysylltu polisi tai a pholisi sgiliau adeiladu yn well yng Nghymru, neu fel arall ni fydd neb ar gael i adeiladu neu roi at ei gilydd y cartrefi rydym am eu cael nac i ôl-osod y rhai sydd gennym yn barod. Mae llawer o waith i'w wneud ym maes tai. Rydym angen y sgiliau i'w wneud. Rydym angen polisi integredig cydlynol ar gyfer tai, gan sicrhau bod gennym weithwyr medrus i adeiladu'r tai. Ymrwymiad cynghorau i adeiladu tai: cyllid ar gyfer datblygu tai cyngor, gan gynnwys defnyddio benthyca darbodus a benthyca yn erbyn gwerth stoc cynghorau. Datblygu tai cydweithredol: rwyf wedi ysgrifennu am hyn yn fanwl iawn, ond rydym ymhell ar ôl gweddill y byd ar gynhyrchu tai cydweithredol. Yn bwysicach na hynny, yr ewyllys wleidyddol i fynd i'r afael â'r prinder tai. Mae pawb yn haeddu cartref gweddus; ein lle ni yw sicrhau bod gan bawb gartref gweddus, a byddwn yn annog Llywodraeth Cymru i weithredu strategaeth sy'n cael pobl i mewn i dai. Ac mae un effaith arall i adeiladu tai cyngor: mae'n adfer rhai o'r tai rhent preifat i berchen-feddiannaeth. Felly, mae pawb ar eu hennill.