Supply and planning are the main focus of the new edition of WHQ alongside homelessness, social housing waiting lists and all our regular updates and features.
With a year to go to meet the Welsh Government’s target of 20,000 social homes in this Senedd term, the Spring issue – out this week – reflects in depth on the housing supply crisis in Wales and what can be done to fix it.
Solutions require action on many different fronts – on planning, regulation, investment, placemaking and skills just for starters – and by many different actors. Local authorities, housebuilders and construction professionals must play their part alongside housing associations, housing professionals, private landlords and landowners.
But they must start by recognising the scale of the supply problems in Wales, with housebuilding down by 45 per cent since the 1990s and falling to just 4,771 new homes in 2023/24. Only once in the last 50 years has it been lower and that was 2020/21, the year of the pandemic, and the 12-month total compares to the Future Wales target of 7,400 a year.
In social housing, it’s hard to many people who think that the 20,000 target will be met, although housing secretary Jayne Bryant says real progress is being made despite a backdrop of increased costs and supply chain issues.
But there is more to targets than simply hitting or missing them. They set the tone and it’s as important to focus on what more can be done and what should come next as it to think about whether it can be met. We asked a range of WHQ contributors for their very different answers to these questions.
On supply in general, we hear from Nick Bennett and Alex Madden on the conclusions from a recent roundtable of housebuilders, planners, local authorities and housing associations, and from Jane Carpenter, Mark Harris and Simon Coop on what needs to change in planning.
John Keegan says we need to be brave, develop a coherent vision for the future and be willing to deliver on it to put an end to what he calls ‘the great excuse’. And we hear some grounds for optimism from on Robin Staines and Shan Lloyd Williams on new council housing, from Steve Cranston and Anthony Friis on the Tai ar y Cyd collaboration and Bex Kentfield and Wendy Dearden on turning unused places of worship into homes.
New homes are needed across the board but nowhere more than for people who lack a stable roof over their head. Debbie Thomas presents results from the latest Homelessness Monitor Wales, Lauren Caley reports on new research into social housing waiting lists and Alex Osmond discusses supply in the context of Housing First.
Add our regular features – including a new letter from elsewhere from Victoria Slade in Guernsey – and we hope there will be something for everyone in this issue of WHQ.
Some articles are free for everyone to view but most are accessible for subscribers. WHQ is published online in English and Welsh in online edition and PDF formats. To find out more about subscribing, go here.