Permitted Development Rights

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 13 November 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:22, 13 November 2019

Yes, I accept the point that he makes. Unfortunately, we do have a large range of houses that were built under those circumstances that then are fairly rapidly sold on as open private market housing, and the issue is how we can get a balance to do that. I've been very keen to explore with councils from across Wales how we can get more social housing into those areas. I'm very keen that young people from across the whole of Wales can afford the housing that's there. So, it is a question of how do we get the right kind of housing into communities of that sort to allow young people to stay there, and family members to stay, without actually it being a route into just selling out another private sector house in the middle of a field somewhere, which we, unfortunately, have seen happening in other bits of Wales. So, I'm very happy, Llyr, to work with you to see what we can do to achieve both of those aims simultaneously. So, I think we're trying to get to the same place. It is around how we get the controls in place to make sure that such a system isn't abused and is available in particular to the youngsters who want to stay in those areas.