Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 19 October 2022.
Thanks for your response. Up-to-date Stats Wales figures show that 7,492 new social homes were delivered in Wales during the first 12 years of devolved Labour Government, 11 of which coincided with a UK Labour Government—a 73.45 per cent fall on the 28,215 new social homes delivered in Wales during the 12 years of a UK Conservative Government up to 1997. The 2012 UK housing review stated that 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 countries. In 2019, the highest year for UK new home registration since 2007, the numbers in Wales fell by over 12 per cent. Even the latest published figures for quarter 2 of this year show that Wales was the only nation or region of 12 in the UK to see new home completions reduce. If you dispute any of these official figures, I can send them to you.
So, if you don't dispute these, when will you stop telling and start asking the whole housing sector, including cross-sector housing providers, how to tackle Labour's long-standing affordable housing supply crisis in Wales, which I and the whole sector—and Plaid Cymru at the time—began warning Labour Welsh Government about 18 years ago?