Housing secretary Jayne Bryant has hailed the work of a new collaboration of social landlords ahead of its official launch next week.
Tai ar y Cyd, a collaboration of 23 Welsh social landlords, has produced a groundbreaking pattern book of standardised designs that it says will help make building homes in Wales more sustainable, energy efficient and cost effective.
The pattern book includes layouts for 15 house types and 18 variants ranging from one-bedroom flats and four-bedroom houses to fully wheelchair accessible bungalows and flats.
The benefits of the new pattern book are said to include higher quality homes, economic regeneration, faster construction, use of low-carbon materials, cost certainty, reduced waste, and less disruption to communities.
A design guide is also being launched to support design teams using the pattern book with designing high quality developments that complement the local area and context.
The new homes will utilise natural materials, including timber sourced increasingly from Welsh forests and manufactured in Welsh factories where possible.
The homes are also designed to meet both Welsh Development Quality Requirements and Welsh Housing Quality Standards.
This approach is aimed at ensuring that investment in new homes contributes to local economic regeneration by supporting local businesses and creating green jobs and training opportunities.
The pattern book and design guide will be officially unveiled on 15 January at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea campus.
Ahead of the launch, the cabinet secretary visited Celtic Offsite in Caerphilly, a social enterprise within the United Welsh Group that manufactures timber homes from their factory.
She said: ‘Tai ar y Cyd represents a significant step forward in our commitment to building sustainable and affordable homes here in Wales.
‘We know that there is a real need for good quality and energy efficient homes across our communities and this innovative pattern book give developers the tools they need to build homes more quickly and deliver against our target of building 20,000 affordable low-carbon homes by the end of this Senedd term.
‘I am proud that we have been able to support the delivery of these resources to support our local economies, grow the number of skilled jobs across Wales and increase the number of affordable homes.’
Speaking to WHQ, she called the Tai ar y Cyd ‘a really exciting project’ with the potential to deliver greater cost certainty, less waste and less disruption. She also highlighted the links forged with Welsh companies, upskilling the Welsh workforce and an upcoming strategy on Welsh timber.
Richard Mann, group chief executive of United Welsh said: ‘We were delighted to welcome the cabinet secretary to our timber frame factory, Celtic Offsite.
‘The standardised housing designs from Tai ar y Cyd will enable us to be more efficient in our manufacturing processes, so we can build more homes at a faster rate for housing association and local authority partners.
‘We look forward to using the designs to build more much-needed homes for people to enjoy across Wales.’