THE KEY THEME FOR THIS ISSUE of WHQ is supply and demand. The search for ways to balance the two means being ready to look at new and existing delivery mechanisms. Housing associations and local authorities and private housebuilders continue their work around the country and recent initiatives such as the Welsh Housing Partnership are producing impressive results. Self-financing offers the prospect of local authorities soon being free to manage their own housing revenue to make a real contribution to new supply with the active support of the Welsh Government. Work continues to bring empty homes back into use. These themes are reflected in articles from regular WHQ contributors throughout this issue.
The theme was introduced by Ken Gibb (pages 6-8) with a review of innovative thinking on financing affordable housing supply around the world. However, over the next 10 pages we look at seven examples of new thinking in Wales in more depth:
• Welsh Housing Finance Grant, launched in September and the first time that the sector has participated in a large-scale collective borrowing product
• A new policy on housing supply drawn up by country landowners and businesses.
• A new development model that combines revenue from rents and sales with income generated through renewable energy technologies.
• The Mill, a development near Cardiff that includes affordable homes without grant, and could be a model for projects elsewhere
• The implications of imminent planning reform for housing supply
• Progress so far on plans by RCT Homes for extending affordable housing supply without grant.
• New research that suggests that co-operative housing could be the solution for a growing number of ‘reluctant renters’ who cannot afford to buy.