Welsh Government has published a long-awaited White Paper setting out a ‘progressive path towards achieving housing adequacy for the people of Wales’.
But the consultation document falls short of what campaigners had hoped would be support for incorporating a right to adequate housing into Welsh law. The Back the Bill campaign said a radical solution and rights-based approach are needed to the housing emergency.
The White Paper and the Green Paper that preceded it were promised in the November 2021 co-operation agreement between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru. The white paper was to ‘include proposals for a right to adequate housing, the role a system of fair rents (rent control) could have in making the private rental market affordable for local people on local incomes and new approaches to making homes affordable’. Plaid withdrew from the co-operation agreement in May 2024.
In a written statement, housing secretary Jayne Bryant said: ‘Ensuring everyone in Wales has a decent, affordable and safe place to call home is a key ambition of this Government. The principle that everyone has a right to an adequate home is one we wholeheartedly support. I am proud of the progress we have already made towards delivering housing adequacy for the people of Wales.’
She cited progress on issues including improving housing quality and standards, strengthening tenants’ rights and delivering more social homes as well as ‘transforming our approach to homelessness’.
The housing secretary went on: ‘The proposals in this White Paper set out further building blocks in our progressive path towards achieving housing adequacy for the people of Wales and has been informed by the evidence we received to our Green Paper consultation last year.’
She said that responses to the Green Paper and evidence provided, had highlighted the importance of properly defining housing adequacy in a Welsh context and how it can be realised over time. ‘The White Paper therefore sets out proposals for the development of a long-term housing strategy to provide a clear and measurable framework to support the delivery of housing adequacy for all.’
This will include:
- proposals to develop legislation in the next Senedd term to place a duty on Welsh ministers to produce a housing strategy to address housing adequacy, including provisions for monitoring, reporting and review
- consideration of placing a duty on defined public sector bodies to have regard to the housing strategy in discharging their housing functions.
The White Paper also sets out proposals aimed at improving affordability, habitability and accessibility in the private rented sector, all of which are seen s key aspects of housing adequacy.
These include:
- proposals to improve rent data, including a requirement on landlords/and or agents to provide rent data to Rent Smart Wales;
- the development of a spatial rent map to show local area rent data
- proposals on how to demonstrate a property is habitable
- proposals to support people renting with pets
- guidance around rent guarantors
- exploring the potential for Land Transaction Tax higher residential rates relief if properties are signed up to the Welsh Government’s Leasing Scheme Wales.
Jayne Bryant said: ‘This White Paper is another significant step forward on our progressive journey towards delivering housing adequacy for everyone in Wales. We will continue to work with stakeholders in taking forward the broad range of measures which encompasses delivery of housing adequacy.’
The consultation will run to 31 January 2025.
The Back the Bill campaign – a partnership of Tai Pawb, CIH Cymru and Shelter Cymru – pointed out that 77 per cent of the people of Wales had supported a legal right to housing in research carried out in 2020.
It said: ‘The publication of today’s White Paper on securing a path towards adequate housing contains some positive steps forward. However, it falls short of fundamental change and ambition which can only be delivered through hard-wiring a legal commitment to providing housing as a human right.
‘The current housing emergency – with record numbers in temporary accommodation, on social housing waiting lists and in poor quality housing – necessitates a radical solution. We believe that a rights-based approach, underpinned by legislation, would act as a catalyst for positive change, bringing about additional resource and greater accountability.
‘As we continue to digest the detailed content of the White Paper in the coming days, we are committed to ongoing dialogue with partners and stakeholders, including Welsh Government, to help build a Wales where, over time, everyone can have a home that is safe, secure, suitable and one that they can afford.’