Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 17 January 2018.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:26, 17 January 2018

I thank you for the question. The issue of empty homes is an issue of concern for the Welsh Government. There have been, as you say, some good projects delivered under our empty homes project in particular, but it is an opportunity, really, to look right across our opportunities for regeneration to see how we can turn, for example, empty shops in our high streets into homes. That's something that we're pursuing through our town centre loan scheme, for example. It's something that's been part of our Vibrant and Viable Places project, but could, in the future, form part of our targeted regeneration investment programme. That's a new programme launched in October of last year, which is a £100 million of investment in regeneration. So, I'm keen that, whenever we are thinking about regeneration, we're also thinking in the context of home building and particularly turning empty properties back into homes.