Thank you, Chair, and it’s a pleasure to speak on behalf, very briefly, of the Finance Committee, just to outline the financial implications of the Abolition of the Right to Buy and Associated Rights (Wales) Bill.

The Finance Committee wishes to bring the Assembly’s attention to the wide variation in the figures in the regulatory impact assessment in estimating the potential costs and benefits that could arise from implementing the Bill’s provisions. The figures provided range from a potential benefit of £57.4 million to a potential cost of £75.3 million. This would usually be a cause for concern, but the Cabinet Secretary explained that uncertainties in predicting the number of property sales was the reason for this variation. He provided us with the details of the modelling used by the Welsh Government to measure the financial impact on social landlords, and the committee was reassured by this work.

Some stakeholders have voiced concern that a surge in applications by eligible tenants to exercise their right to buy could result in an increased workload during the one-year period following Royal Assent. We believe this concern must be weighed against the Cabinet Secretary’s assertion that there is much support for the Bill within the housing sector—support that was echoed by John Griffiths, the committee Chair, who’s just spoken.

Finally, I would like to re-iterate an issue that this Finance Committee and our predecessor committee have raised on a number of occasions relating to the costs of implementing secondary legislation provisions. In the case of this Bill, the Cabinet Secretary has assured us that the foreseeable costs are accounted for in full.