7. Debate: The Affordable Housing Supply Review

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:21 pm on 10 July 2018.

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Photo of Hefin David Hefin David Labour 5:21, 10 July 2018

And as a capitalist it disgusts David Melding. [Laughter.] So, I think that demonstrates that, even if you divide on ideological terms, you can still find some commonality of practice—some commonality of practice.

The traditional model of house building needs to change. I met in my surgery, just on Saturday morning, Cerianne Thorneycroft. She was born in Cardiff, she is a chartered architect and environmentalist, but she now lives in Gloucestershire. She is trying to get self-build off the ground, on which she then acts as a project manager. She said there's no need to have, in her model, any housing developer involved. There are no costs to be saved, no opportunities to be missed based on end-goal profit margins. In her email to me, she says, 'By self-build, I mean the future owners of the homes are involved from the start, before a site is even found.' So, those people are involved and she facilitates that. It's an innovative model. I think the Welsh Government should speak to Cerianne Thorneycroft and discuss with her this business called Green Roots E-cohaus. I think she's worth listening to.

And finally, with regard to work stream 9, existing powers the Welsh Government has, I think there are problems, which Bethan Sayed mentioned, with estate management charges, which we've debated. I think we need an independent property ombudsman in Wales and the adaption and strengthening of Rent Smart Wales as an arm's-length regulatory and accreditation body for those estate management companies, because what the estate management companies do is add charges on top of your mortgage, on top of your council tax, which increases unaffordability. There's nobody regulating them. Let me tell you: if we all wanted to get together and set up an estate management company tomorrow, we could and we could fleece people, but of course we wouldn't do that. But there are people out there who would, and I think we need a regulatory body. I believe, in line with work stream 9—I think the Welsh Government's got a tool there, with Rent Smart Wales, that could act as an arm's-length body, and the Association of Residential Managing Agents believes that that is entirely possible.

So, this is a great step for the Welsh Government, but I think that more needs to be done according to the thrust of this debate.