Waiting Lists for Social Housing

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 4 March 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:30, 4 March 2020

Yes, you're absolutely right, and we have a number of examples of that. My colleague Hannah Blythyn has been touring Wales, looking at various examples of bringing exactly that kind of property back into use. And we have a number of schemes that allow—. In circumstances where those properties are owned in the private sector, we have a number of schemes that allow those private landlords to come forward and give the property up for social rent for five years, in return for returning the property to a liveable standard and so on. And, in a recent meeting with Newport council, for example, we were shown a set of schemes in the centre of Newport in which the properties above the shops had been brought back into beneficial use. That provides homes for people, but it also provides vibrancy and much needed footfall in the town centre, and my colleague Hannah Blythyn has been pushing our regeneration initiative in town centres for exactly that reason.