North Wales MS and Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning, Mark Isherwood, has challenged the Welsh Government over the housing emergency in Wales and widespread concern that its 20,000 affordable homes target won’t be met by the March 2026 deadline.
Responding to yesterday’s Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, ‘More homes towards ending homelessness’, Mr Isherwood referred to the more than 11,000 people homeless and trapped in temporary accommodation in Wales and almost 140,000 on social housing waiting lists.
He criticised the Labour Welsh Government for slashing funding for housing from 1999, “ignoring repeated warnings of a housing crisis” and “setting in train the housing supply crisis that was to follow”.
He said:
“This Welsh Government’s only housing target is to build 20,000 new low-carbon social homes for rent during this five-year Senedd term. However, only 3,120 new homes were completed in Wales by social landlords in the first three years of this Senedd term, well short of the 20,000 Welsh Government target. So, the Welsh Government changed the goalposts, stating it now counts some homes that are not new builds and not low carbon, and also now counts homes for intermediate rent and shared ownership, but even with this, Audit Wales still expects it to fall short of its target.
“How therefore do you respond to the estimate by Audit Wales that without additional funding, the Welsh Government will miss their 20,000 target by up to 4,140 homes, and to the report’s recommendations, including that Welsh Government should ‘conduct detailed scenario planning to provide a clear and early indication of funding for the key affordable housing schemes in 2025-26’ and ‘assess and set out the options for continuing to meet the need for affordable housing over the longer term’?
“And how do you respond to today’s Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru Sector Snapshot report, which reflects widespread concern that the Welsh Government’s 20,000 affordable homes target won’t be met by the March 2026 deadline, and to their cost benefit analysis of the right to adequate housing, which outlined that we need to be building an additional 20,000 social homes over a 10-year period, on top of the 20,000 homes already committed to by Welsh Government this Senedd term?
Mr Isherwood also challenged the Cabinet Secretary over the fact the Welsh Government was expected to launch its consultation on their Homelessness White Paper before the Summer recess, but failed to do so, and asked when progress will be made on this.
He also stated:
“Taff Housing recently hosted a roundtable at the Senedd, which included Cymorth Cymru, The Wallich, the Salvation Army, Community Housing Cymru and the Bevan Foundation. This identified three key actions needed to support ending homelessness. How do you respond to these, which included ‘ensuring sufficient housing supply by addressing planning constraints, under occupancy and empty homes’ and ‘moving away from reactive spend to focus on prevention’?
Mr Isherwood stressed that “although the provision of more homes is key, it alone will not tackle the revolving door of homelessness when a host of complex causes, including family breakdown, abuse, substance misuse and mental health conditions, including trauma, are not also addressed”.
He also noted that Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors data shows that in the private rented sector, tenant demand in Wales continues to increase, but the number of new properties coming on the market is falling, and that Rent Smart Wales registration data shows that if Cardiff and Swansea are excluded, over 5,500 private rented homes have been lost since 2021.