Shadow Housing Minister and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Housing Minister to take action to address the fact that many people in Wales are unable to afford homes in their local communities.
Prior to the start of the pandemic, Wales was already in the midst of a housing crisis, but with Covid further hitting the number of new homes being built, Mr Isherwood has asked the Minister to outline her plans to respond to the housing shortage.
Speaking in the Welsh Parliament on Wednesday, he said:
“The Covid-19 Pandemic has delivered a sharp shock to the UK housing Market, with a the number of new homes registered to be built in the first 3 quarters down in all UK nations.
“However, Wales was starting from the lowest base. Last year, the highest year for UK new home registrations since 2007, the numbers in Wales fell by over 12% on the previous year, and the number of new homes built by 13% to the lowest number since 2012-13. Social Housing stock in Wales only increased 1%, with just 1,288 new social homes built.
“How do you therefore respond to the statement by the ‘Back the Bill’ Campaign, backed by Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru, Shelter Cymru and Tai Pawb, that ‘Wales is in the midst of a housing crisis. Demand significantly outstrips supply. Many people are unable to afford homes in their local communities’, and its call for a ‘right to adequate housing in Wales’ - and to calls across the sector for 20,000 new social homes to be built during the next Welsh Parliament term?”
In her response, the Minister insisted that “Housing is a key priority for the Government”, but failed to answer Mr Isherwood’s question.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood added:
“Instead of evading my question, the Minister should come clean. The figures I quoted were taken from National House-Building Council (NHBC) statistics, official data from StatsWales and published Welsh Government ‘Social landlord housing stock’ statistics. Although the latter are published annually, the Welsh Government has not published figures for 2019-20.
“The NHBC statistical release for Q3 2020 reports a 17% drop in new home registrations in Wales compared to the same period last year, and StatsWales statistics published in March show a 13% decrease in new homes built in Wales in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18 and that this was the lowest number since 2012-13.
“Whilst this Labour Welsh Government has a target to build 20,000 ‘affordable homes’ by the end of this Welsh Parliament, it has included several different types of housing within this, not just social homes, failing to meet the housing needs of people in Wales.”
