Empty Houses

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 11 March 2020.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 2:37, 11 March 2020

(Translated)

But the truth is that we have around 3,000 empty homes in north Wales, and some of them have been vacant for a decade and more. This is a huge waste of resources, isn't it? Because we are crying out for affordable homes, but we have thousands of empty homes in north Wales, and then we're seeing houses built on greenfield sites and on flood plains in north Wales. So, certainly, it remains a problem. We know that the turning houses into homes programme had an ambition of bringing 5,000 empty houses into use, but I think only 98 were returned to the housing sector in the year 2018-19. So, can you tell us what consideration you're giving to other incentives, which may be more effective, that could be used to encourage the owners of empty houses to tackle this problem?