Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:24 pm on 23 September 2020.
I move amendment 1.
From 2003, I've campaigned for the sector, warning the Welsh Government that Wales faced an affordable housing supply crisis unless urgent action was taken. We heard this when we took evidence on Pen Llŷn, 15 years ago. Instead, the Labour Welsh Government cut the number of social homes by over 70 per cent during the first three Assembly terms, as waiting lists mushroomed. The 2012 UK housing review stated it was the Welsh Government itself that gave housing lower priority in its overall budgets, so that, by 2009-10, it had by far the lowest proportional level of housing expenditure of any of the four UK countries. Even last year, 2019, the highest year for UK new home registrations since 2007, the numbers in Wales fell by over 12 per cent. We cannot therefore support the Welsh Government amendment, which pretends that the Welsh Government has had a long-standing commitment to the provision of good quality affordable housing.