Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Planning, Mark Isherwood MS, has criticised the Labour Welsh Government for failing to build the homes needed to tackle the housing crisis facing Wales.
Questioning the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government in today’s Spokesperson’s Questions, Mr Isherwood said by slashing funding for housing from 1999 and ignoring repeated warnings of a housing crisis, the Labour Welsh Government set in train the housing supply crisis which has led to almost 140,000 people on social housing waiting lists now.
He stressed that the 2012 UK Housing Review stated that, by 2009-10, the Welsh Government had by far the lowest proportional level of housing expenditure of any of the four UK countries, and that the Welsh Government has continued to lag ever since.
He added:
“North Wales Housing Associations have highlighted now the Audit Wales report which found that ‘without additional funding, the Welsh Government will miss their 20,000 target by up to 4,140 homes’. As the Bevan Foundation states, ‘the delivery of new social homes is lagging behind Welsh Government aspirations as well as the reality of growing demand’. And as Community Housing Cymru states, what they ‘really need is a longer term, sustainable multi-year settlement’.”
He asked the Cabinet Secretary what assurances she can provide that “the affordable homes funding which the Welsh Government will receive in consequentials from the UK Government, and hopefully more, will be fully allocated to affordable housing in Wales?”
He also referred to Shelter Cymru’s new report showing that, in 2023-24, the total cost of temporary accommodation in Wales reached £99 million, more than double what it was in 2020-21, stressing that this highlights “the significant increase in temporary accommodation in Wales, and the human impact of this, with over 11,000 people, including almost 3,000 children, now living in such places.”
He said:
“Their research also shows increasing reliance on private sector provision. How, therefore, do you respond to calls by the National Residential Landlords Association for Welsh Government action to tackle ‘an acute shortage of homes for private let, with demand outstripping supply, not only putting upward pressure on rents, but also undermining tenants’ purchasing power in the market, making it more difficult to hold bad and criminal landlords to account’, and to the statement by Community Housing Cymru,the voice of Housing Associations in Wales, that ‘as we come up to Welsh Government Budget time, there is a need, in particular, to at least sustain the Housing Support Grant in real terms and help keep people in their homes?”
He also referred to the Home Builders Federation statement last month that Wales continues to face a housing affordability crisis, caused, in part, by a lack of new supply of housing over many decades.
He said:
“Indeed, they say, the latest Welsh Government data on housing supply confirms that new dwellings built in Wales in the 2023-24 financial year was the second lowest on record. Furthermore, the Welsh Government's 'Future Wales: The National Plan 2040' estimates that on average 7,400 additional homes were required annually from 2019-24, with the majority for market sale or rent. However, the average number completed over the last five years was just 5,498.
“Noting the statement earlier by yourself on ‘Support for Affordable Housing Delivery’, issued only 50 minutes ago, do you agree that we need a whole-market solution to the housing crisis in Wales? And if so, how will you co-produce, co-design and co-deliver solutions with housing providers, including private landlords and house builders with social landlords and local authorities, across the whole sector?”
Commenting later, Mr Isherwood added:
“The Home Builders Federation also highlighted issues including Welsh Government interventions which delayed housing delivery, and the Welsh Government’s failure to accept many of the Competition and Markets Authority proposals for reform of the planning system”.