Housing minister Julie James announced the third year of funding for the Innovative Housing Programme (IHP) at the end of September.
An extra £33 million was allocated to projects as part of a £90m fund to test new approaches to help develop social and affordable housing.
‘Wales is at the vanguard of housing innovation, creativity and new thinking,’ she said.
That was shown both by the fact that the programme was hugely over-subscribed (52 bids from a mix of public and private sector organisations worth more than £230 million) and by the quality of the bids,
‘Collaboration is key,’ she told the Senedd. ‘No single organisation can solve all of the issues we face on their own. So, growing the IHP community has been a priority this year, and I am really pleased to see the emerging collaborations. Examples include the joining together of organisational resources to eliminate fuel poverty, build near-zero-carbon homes, and test new approaches to building homes, which can then be retrofitted to existing ones.
Julie James (left) and Andrea Lewis, cabinet member for homes and energy at Swansea Council, see progress at Parc Yr Helig in Birchgrove, Swansea
She said that she had wanted to push the programme further and get more affordable homes built more quickly. ‘So, I challenged the sector to bring forward schemes that upscaled the tester schemes this Government invested in previously. I asked for schemes at scale, and the sector has delivered. The average size of the schemes funded will triple between year two and year three of the programme.’
And she said the sector had also responded to the challenge to deliver near zero carbon homes and great designs.
Projects to be funded under the latest round of the Innovative Housing Programme include:
- 76 homes in Ruthin from Clwyd Alyn Housing association. These could be the first in the UK to deliver net zero whole life carbon, with renewable energy offsetting the carbon impact of production and construction. Homes will have air source heat pumps, solar power and intelligent batteries with heating and lighting costs estimated at less than £80 a year
- Two sites developed by Monmouthshire Housing Association in Chepstow to create 17 properties for people who are downsizing and first-time occupiers whose households might expand. The homes will have designed-in opportunities to add an additional bedroom to create life-long flexibility
- Cardiff Council will build 214 low carbon homes, a mix of council housing and homes to be sold on the open market in Rumney
- Swansea Council will build 25 homes to the ‘Swansea Standard’, a low carbon, energy efficient specification with solar panels, designed to achieve low running costs for tenants.
- Sero Homes will develop 35 homes for open market rent in Pontardawe. The net zero carbon homes will also be offered at an earlier stage through local employers to prioritise people able to use active or public transport to commute
- In Rhos on Sea and Llanrwst, Cartrefi Conwy will build 22 low carbon homes which will scale up a previous Innovative Housing Programme project, building Beattie Passive homes in a local off-site manufacturing and training facility which supports the local supply chain
- In Penyrheol, Swansea, Pobl and Coastal Housing Group will build 165homes, a mix of social housing, homes for affordable ownership and homes for sale on the open market. The homes will be zero carbon with renewable technologies integrated and they will be manufactured off-site.
In addition to the capital funding, revenue funding will be available for Yellow Sub Geo’s feasibility screening tool ‘to identify and prioritise the potential for employing low-carbon energy and heat sources across the varied geography, weather, geology and hydrogeology in Wales’.
And she added that she had asked officials to revisit unsuccessful applications for this year’s IHP to see what support can be provided to help deliver the government’s housing priorities.
Julie James announced the new funding at Parc Yr Helyg in Birchgrove, Swansea, which received Innovative Housing Programme funding during a previous round.
She said: ‘We face serious challenges in Wales, in terms of responding to the climate emergency and also delivering more affordable housing. This programme offers us the chance to develop homes with low fuel bills to tackle fuel poverty, homes designed and built with a low carbon impact in mind, and homes that can evolve with their households.
‘We have an opportunity to deliver affordable, high-quality homes that meet all these challenges, which reduce the impact of housebuilding on the environment, and that can be built at scale to meet the needs of our communities.
‘Good quality, beautiful houses are so important to people’s lives. I look forward to seeing these projects develop and to seeing the finished builds become homes.’