Labour won 29 seats an election that leaves it just short of a majority in the new Assembly.
The story of the night was Leanne Wood’s victory in the Rhondda. The Plaid Cymru leader beat Labour’s Leighton Andrews in the only constituency seat to change hands at Election 2016. Andrews was the outgoing public services minister with responsibilities including local government reorganisation.
But that was Labour’s only defeat in a constituency seat. In North Wales there were victories for outgoing communities and tackling poverty Lesley Griffiths in Wrexham and former housing and regeneration minister Carl Sargeant in Alyn and Deeside. Mike Hedges, chair of the Cross Party Group on housing in the last Assembly, held his Swansea East seat. Among the new Labour faces are Lee Waters, former head of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, who held off a Plaid challenge in Llanelli.
It was a disappointing night for the Conservatives, who failed to take any of their target constituency seats. Shadow housing minister Mark Isherwood held his list seat in North Wales.
Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams increased her majority in Brecon and Radnorshire. However, housing lost one of its best advocates in the Assembly as Peter Black lost his list seat South West Wales.
Overall Labour will be the biggest party but down on the 30 seats it won in 2011 and short of a majority.
With all 60 seats declared, Labour has 29 seats (down one), Plaid 12 (up one), the Conservatives 11 (down three), UKIP seven (up six) and the Lib Dems one (down four).
The Welsh housing sector called on the new administration to recognise the vital impact of housing on health, education and the economy in its new Programme for Government.
Stuart Ropke, chief executive of Community Housing Cymru, said:
‘Every party elected to the Assembly today supported the Homes for Wales campaign and pledged to end the housing crisis in Wales. They must now deliver on this promise with an ambitious plan for housing in the new Programme for Government.
‘CHC and our members look forward to working with the next Welsh Government to deliver more Homes for Wales. As a sector, we exceeded the affordable housing target of 10,000 in the last Assembly term. To ensure that we can continue to build more homes, the next Welsh Government must restate its commitment to the sector with continued investment and promptly bringing forward proposed legislation to end the Right to Buy in the new Assembly.’