5. 5. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Future Housing Needs

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:21 pm on 7 June 2017.

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Photo of Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant Labour 3:21, 7 June 2017

Why would we start believing you now, when we've seen Theresa May turn on her policies year on year? The facts are that, since 1923, you are lower in this term of government than any other Government, Labour or Conservative. You've got not a leg to stand on.

I acknowledge more needs to be done, Llywydd, to meet the needs for social housing, and I am committed to doing all we can to achieve this. Welsh Government interventions cannot solely be responsible for delivering every home in Wales, either, but we are investing record levels of funding in this term of government—£1.3 billion to support the housing sector across tenures. I am proud of the record in supporting both social and market housing. In the last term of government, we set a target of 10,000 affordable homes, and we were able to deliver 11,500. I think, Andrew, in your contribution, you failed to recognise that we exceeded the targets that we’d set in our last term of government. And in this term of government, we set a target of delivering 20,000 affordable homes, including 6,000 through Help to Buy. The inclusion of Help to Buy reflects the success of the scheme and the importance we are placing on helping those who, as many made reference to, wish to become home owners, as well as those who require social housing.

Amongst those who wish to become home owners, we know there are people who aspire to own their own home but cannot save the deposit while often paying high rates in the private sector. And officials are in the process of developing a scheme, rent to own—that's why the Member won't find anything online, because we haven't launched the scheme yet, but we will be over these next coming months—which will help people to achieve home ownership without any deposit, provided they can afford the market rent.

We rely on our partners in local authorities, housing associations and the private sector to construct the homes we need in Wales, and we all need to listen to, and act on, some of the issues they face in seeking to build more homes. Government, Assembly Members, local councillors, house builders must be willing to work together to address the barriers to house building. I was particularly interested in the contributions of the Conservative Members. I mean, half of the millionaires on the front row, Llywydd, have written to me complaining about housing developments in the past. So, one minute they want housing, and the next minute they don't want housing. So, I don't know what particularly they want. [Interruption.] I'm more than happy to take it if I've got time.