7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Housing

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:39 pm on 9 January 2019.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 5:39, 9 January 2019

But I'm not interested in the past; I'm interested in the future. Can I just say, as well, incidentally, that Penyrenglyn is a really good example of where the community has taken control of housing use there? I mean, you know the estate that I'm talking about; Valleys Kids and their friends have made a huge difference to community housing there. So, that's the type of thing I would rather us discuss than the silly, nonsensical stuff that Leanne Wood is prepared to talk about. 

I just wanted to say: a bit of context to this is that my parents grew up as children in the second world war, so I grew up in a household where they'd experienced this big explosion of housing that Mike was talking about, but it was also an era when wastefulness was frowned upon and expensive purchases were planned for, partly because of the need to save up, and partly to avoid the situation where—people didn't have to panic buy something because they had no choice.

Now, Lee Waters will be familiar with the Brynmefys estate in Furnace, and that was my grandparents' home for most of their lives. Perhaps, actually, it's a cautionary tale as well against over-embracing the non-traditional construction methods, but, more importantly, I think it was a wasted opportunity to house people, because that estate is so broken now it virtually needs to be rebuilt. I think there are particular local reasons, to be fair, for that, but wastefulness is not a reason for the 27,000 empty homes. That reason can't be local in every single case.

So, I've encouraged Welsh Government over the years to consider our policy of extending Help to Buy to bring suitable empty properties back into use, because Help to Buy currently favours larger construction firms, although, of course, they do sub-contract. It's a variation that would offer more direct help for those small firms that characterise our economy, as they are the ones that are interested in maintenance and repair and renovation work. So while, of course, I think, like we all do, that the should be more building, instead of putting all our eggs in the new-build basket, how about a renewed focus on keeping existing, basically sound properties in circulation as homes in communities where cohesion is potentially threatened, and where property remains relatively inexpensive, and where connectivity, physical and digital, should be the driver of the sustainability of those communities?

Now, yes, we've had Welsh Government schemes. We've had Houses into Homes—£30 million promised since 2012 for short-term, interest-free loans to owners of empty properties to help them renovate. I only have the figures up to 2015, I'm sorry, but by that time just 360 loans had been approved and 40 per cent of the work completed. I think it's an expensive, poorly advertised system to deliver a highly supportable purpose, slightly surprisingly for this Government, aimed at private owners in the rental market.

Now, ethical private landlords are important providers of homes, and I commend the work of The Wallich and Crisis, who've been working with private landlords in tackling homelessness. Most private landlords are not careless of their tenants, or greedy, and as a property lawyer in the two housing booms that preceded the crash, I can say that not all buy-to-let was about that awful money bubble. There were ordinary people, constituents who inherited or bought a property to be their pension pot. I think Mike mentioned this. Of course, Gordon Brown had sold off the gold, investment rates were very low, about to get worse, so of course people were worried about their future security, and many of those are today's private landlords.

Just to finish, Llywydd, if you don't mind: this being wasteful, that's one thing; panic buying is another thing. I'd hazard that most LDPs reflect an element of this panic. After years of limited building, councils are now finding themselves pushed into these large candidate sites on the edges of established communities, with all the problems with services, sometimes with the advice of developers who'll have insider knowledge, but without that courage to demand meaningful section 106 or community levy payments to pay for associated infrastructure. That heaps up trouble for leaseholders and even some freeholders, as Hefin David has mentioned fairly recently, in locations that have poor links to anywhere.

I have plenty more to say, but I don't think I've got time, Llywydd. But thank you very much.