Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal Democrats

Minister could take over a decade to reach affordable housing target

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Housing, Peter Black has highlighted statistics from the Welsh Government, which show that it could take them over a decade to reach their target of 6,500 more affordable housing by 2011.

Figures obtained by Mr Black in answer to written questions to the Minister for Housing, Jocelyn Davies AM, show that in the first year of the target (2007/08) 1,533 affordable homes were built. However, answers to previous questions also show that a total of 938 council or RSL owned properties were destroyed or sold in the same period, leading to a net gain of only 595 new affordable properties for 2007/08. At that rate it would take the government almost 11 years to meet their target.

The Minister has previously claimed that the government will still make their target, however, last year Peter Black launched a research project that showed the Government were not going to be able to build enough affordable housing using their current methods and urged the Minister to review her plans.

Peter Black said:

"These figures show that Minister is not on target to meet her 2011 target. For the first year of the target the Government only managed to deliver about one third of what was needed."

"It is only reasonable that the One Wales Government commitment is measured against a net gain and that therefore demolitions and sales need to be included in the figures. The Government has put a lot more money into building new units but as yet there are no signs that they are producing the results. The delay over the legislation to enable them to suspend the right to buy in areas of high demand is also a setback to the Government's aims."

"These figures deal with the period before the economic crisis started to slow down the rate of house building so that many affordable units could have been built through planning gain. It may be the case that this is actually the year the Government could have made the most progress towards their target."

"The Minister needs to be honest about the likelihood of reaching her target and set out in some detail her plans. References to large sums of extra money are meaningless without that detail."

ENDS

Notes: The Minister provided the following answers to questions.

Peter Black (South Wales West): Will the Minister provide figures to update us on how much progress has been achieved in reaching the Welsh Assembly Government target of 6,500 new affordable housing units by 2011. (WAQ54325) (17th June 2009)

Jocelyn Davies: The Wales Economic Research Unit (WERU) report published on 21 November 2008 showed that in 2007/08 1533 affordable homes were built in Wales. We have now introduced a new comprehensive method for counting affordable homes which are delivered from a number of different sources. The numbers of affordable homes built in 2008/09 will be known in the late autumn.

Clearly, the numbers of affordable homes we anticipated being provided by the private sector has reduced with the economic downturn. For this reason we have taken a number of measures to provide affordable homes from other sources. Housing was awarded £42m from the Strategic Capital Investment Fund over a three year period. We are also bringing forward Welsh Assembly Government-owned sites for transfer to Housing Associations. We aim to meet the potential shortfall of homes coming forward as a result of the credit crunch with these and other additional measures.

£42m of Strategic Capital Investment Funding (SCIF) was awarded to the Housing Directorate in 2008 to allow Housing Associations to purchase developers' unsold properties and private land where it was a priority for the local authority in order to meet housing need. This assisted the developer, the construction industry and provided good value affordable housing. In 2008/09 25 developers were assisted with 205 affordable homes provided. SCIF money awarded for 09/10 and 10/11 should provide similar additional outputs.

The current housing market downturn has made it more difficult to obtain affordable housing through the private sector and s106 planning agreements; for this reason we have looked at other ways to maintain affordable housing figures.

The Land Release Protocol ensures that publicly-owned land is more easily accessible for the provision of affordable housing. Use of Welsh Assembly Government Department of Economy and Transport sites, Welsh Health Estates, NHS Trusts and other public sector sites, including local authority sites is another way of maintaining the provision of affordable housing and boosting the construction industry.

We are considering funding for Social Housing Grant for these sites and a series of other linked housing programmes which would also assist the private sector. An announcement will be made before Christmas 2009 on any extra funding which may or may not be available for this area.

Following a review of the available data on affordable housing a comprehensive data collection has now been introduced for local authorities, Housing Associations and National Park Authorities to submit on an annual basis. The aim is for this to be collected with effect from 1 April 2009 and to include retrospective statistics for 2007/08 and 2008/09.

Peter Black (South Wales West): How many affordable houses have been completed by (a) Local authorities (b) RSLs (c) via S.106 agreements and (d) other bodies in the financial year 2007-2008. (WAQ52327) (6th August 2008)

Jane Davidson: During 2007-08, there were 343 new dwellings completed by RSLs, and 5 completed by local authorities. Information on S.106 agreements and affordable homes completed by other bodies is not currently held centrally.

The data collected on affordable housing is currently being reviewed and it is planned that a more comprehensive set of data will be collected from April 2009, which will include some retrospective statistics.

Peter Black (South Wales West) : How many homes were sold under the right to buy or right to acquire by (a) Local Authorities and (b) RSLs in the financial year 2007-2008. (WAQ52325)

Jane Davidson: During the financial year 2007-2008, there were 819 completed sales of local authority dwellings via the Right to Buy scheme. A total of 52 dwellings were sold by RSLs: 30 sold via Right to Buy and 22 by Right to Acquire.

Peter Black (South Wales West): How many homes were demolished by (a) Local authorities and (b) RSLs in the financial year 2007-2008. (WAQ52435)

Jane Davidson: During the financial year 2007-08, 28 local authority dwellings were demolished and 39 RSL dwellings were demolished.