Waiting Lists for Social Housing

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 4 March 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:32, 4 March 2020

So, the system in Wales is that we expect the local authorities to make an assessment of housing need, and then we tailor our social housing grant to match that. We're in the process, as a result of the affordable housing review, of looking again at the way that we do social housing grants, and, Deputy Presiding Officer, I do hope to be able to bring forward an oral statement, certainly before the summer recess, detailing that. So, we've accepted the affordable housing review's recommendations in principle, but I want to bring forward an implementation plan that tells you how we're taking that forward. And part of the recommendations, if you remember from that review, were that we looked again at the way we did social housing grants, and we allowed it to be better targeted at the kinds of households that are coming forward. 

Actually, a very large number of the single households in Wales are women over 70. So, you need very different accommodation for young, single households than you do for older households, and different arrangements, so we do need to have a very good assessment of housing need. But, in principle, I agree with you; we need to look again and see that our systems produce the kind of housing that we most need.