3. What action is the Welsh Government taking to increase the supply and quality of social and affordable housing? OAQ(5)0071(CC)

I thank the Member for her question. We will be providing over £1.5 billion in this Assembly term to support affordable housing. We’ll be encouraging new design, developing new schemes, working closely to deliver affordable homes with all our partners, and abolishing the right to buy.

Thank you, Minister. The Welsh Government’s announcement of £1.3 billion being allocated across the term of this Government to support the delivery of 20,000 affordable homes and to complete the task of meeting the Welsh housing quality standard highlights the passion this Government has on this issue. Will the Minister outline how my constituents and their families in Islwyn will benefit from these ambitious plans?

I thank the Member for her questions; she’s very passionate about the issue of supporting housing in her constituency. We will provide housing across tenures to meet the diverse housing needs and aspirations of your residents. Investing in housing will benefit the local economy and create employment opportunities. New homes also increase local investment through planning obligations, council taxes, and provide wider community benefits for her and her constituents to enjoy.

This year, Carmarthenshire County Council, under the leadership of Plaid Cymru, introduced a scheme to provide 1,000 new affordable houses over the next three years. As part of the scheme, they’ve got different methods of doing this: managing additional tenancies in the private sector, bringing more vacant homes back into use, and also buying new private homes in order to put them out to rent. Do you agree with me that this is a commendable scheme and offers innovative solutions, and also that we should recommend this way of working to other local authorities throughout Wales so that they can learn from this good practice and respond to housing problems in their areas?

Of course, there are many good practices across Wales in terms of housing solutions. Indeed, the Labour-run authority of Flintshire have also introduced a council-house building scheme and, indeed, are protecting the asset base on the basis that they’re applying for the abolition of the right to buy, too. So, I do commend people who are investing in their communities, whichever party that may be.

Cabinet Secretary, a report by the late Professor Holmans estimated that Wales needs up to 240,000 new housing units or 12,000 units between 2011 and 2031—it means within the next 20 years. This is nearly double the number delivered in 2014-15. Why has the Welsh Government rejected the findings of Professor Holmans and instead has committed to delivering a target for housing that falls well short of his projection of the needs of Wales?

I’m grateful for the Member’s question. Indeed, the spokesperson for housing seems to have passed on the baton to the Member on the backbench there. I would urge the Member to read all of the report of Alan Holmans’s estimates. Indeed, 174,000 homes or flats will be needed—this equates to around 8,700 new homes each year, which would mean around 3,300 would be non-market social housing.

The Member keeps portraying this issue as the one and only solution. Actually, our 20,000 homes are only part of the solution. The market has to deliver other housing solutions as well, but we will be making a £1.5 billion investment in this term of the Government for community solutions to homes.

Focusing on the 20,000 homes that your Government’s committed to building, I was surprised in committee to learn that, of those, only 1,000 at the moment are going to be built to the new eco standards of warmth. Given that some 40 per cent of people living in social housing can’t afford to heat them properly, I wondered why you haven’t looked more carefully at Pentre Solar, the six homes that are being built in Pembrokeshire by Western Solar, using a mere £141,000 of Welsh Government funding and bringing people off the council waiting list. Now, they would like to build another 1,000 homes, just this one company, but the barriers to them are land to be available and also the financing of it. Given that they’ve been so successful with so little money, why do you think the Government can’t do much more in terms of building homes that are fit for the twenty-first century?

Well, I’m not convinced we can’t do more. I think what we’ve said is the 20,000 model that we’re using is a starter and the process of looking at financial modelling and the ability to deliver 20,000 homes. I’m very relaxed about shaping the way that looks in terms of the make-up of the 20,000. If we can get more energy-efficient, cheaper homes to run longer term in a similar period to the investment profile that I have to deliver this, I’m very happy to have those discussions. That’s non-specific to a product—but actually I’ve got my teams looking at innovation, and working with the housing sector and the land division to see what we can do to help the Member, indeed, with the positive activity she pursues in terms of energy efficiency in housing.