Bill fails to tackle crisis
Mark Isherwood says better rather than more regulation is needed to encourage housebuilding
Housebuilding is at its lowest level since the Second World War, with Wales still lagging UK growth rates, up a third in England, but down a third in Wales in the year to July 2013.
The supply of new social housing fell by 71 per cent after devolution. Thousands of households are on waiting lists to find a suitable home and many young people are unable to get on the housing ladder.
Although Welsh Conservatives will respond positively to the Welsh Government’s Housing Bill, we feel it fails to tackle Wales’ housing supply crisis.
Local authorities should base their affordable housing requirements for each planning application upon individual affordable housing viability assessments at each site. This is integral to stimulating housebuilding.
We believe housebuilding needs to be stimulated through better rather than more regulation and regular consultation at the local level. If local authorities apply a blanket target to all new housing developments, builders can find it impossible to make developments work. Rather than delivering a high percentage of nothing as housing providers vote with their feet, local authorities must ensure that homes are built and occupied.
Welsh Conservative Freedom of Information requests found that there are around 32,000 empty homes throughout Wales. We support the work done by the Welsh Government to start tackling this problem. However, we believe they have vastly underestimated this issue. Every empty home has its own story and the key for empty homes officers is to understand why it is empty, and to work closely with the owner to bring it back into use. We need to recognise that it costs the owner money to leave a home empty – and effective empty homes strategies should seek to work with owners, developing services to help them overcome the hurdles they face. We must help, not penalise good landlords who may wish to bring a home back into use or provide new housing through the private rented sector. We recognise the Bill’s potential to prevent homelessness and to meet the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers identified in the 2006 Niner report, which provided the first comprehensive picture of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers in Wales.
We believe that local authorities sharing a travelling area of travelling communities in common should come together with Gypsies and Travellers in their areas to address their accommodation needs on a regional basis. This will also require cross border co-operation between border counties in England and Wales.
Wales needs a whole market solution to its housing supply crisis, recognising as the European Commission has recommended ‘the need to implement a comprehensive housing reform programme to increase supply and therefore make housing more affordable’.
Unfortunately this Bill does little to deliver this, which remains the root cause of shockingly high waiting lists, overcrowding and housing unaffordability for first time buyers.
Mark Isherwood AM is Conservative shadow minister for social justice and housing