'Sale and rent aid on homes is too little, too late' says Assembly Member
12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 20th Apr 2008
A new Welsh Government initiative to help people struggling to pay their mortgages by enabling housing authorities to buy the property and rent it back to them is worthy but inadequate the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Housing Spokeperson, Peter Black has said.
The Labour-Plaid Cymru Government has proposed the plan so as to take pressure off homeowners. Mr. Black said that although the home owner will have greater protection than if his home was bought by a private company under a similar arrangement, this policy change will only affect a small number of those under threat of repossession and would need the Welsh Government to fund the local Council or Housing Association so that they could implement it.
"Measures to keep people in their own home have long been the first resort of housing authorities in trying to avoid families being made homeless due to problems with paying the mortgage," said Mr. Black. "This latest announcement will create one more option for these families and as such it is welcome, however I cannot help but get the impression that in many cases it is too little, too late."
"There is no indication in the Minister's announcement whether there is any new money being provided to fund this scheme. Furthermore, the Plaid-Labour Government themselves need to do a lot more to deal with the housing crisis. They have failed to invest in a key-workers scheme to help those on low incomes get on the housing ladder, they have effectively scrapped the Homebuy scheme, which enabled a housing association to jointly buy a property with those who could not afford the prices on offer, and their target of 6,500 new social housing units by 2011 is looking increasingly unattainable."
"Currently, new social housing is only being built at a rate of 500 units a year at best. At that rate it would be 2020 before the Welsh Government's target is met. They have resorted to relying on planning agreements to get the private sector to build these homes for them and yet over half of Wales' local Councils have yet to sign such an agreement. Unless Labour and Plaid put their money where their mouth is on affordable housing we will continue to face a crisis in Wales. Announcements such as that made today help but they barely scratch the surface of what needs to be done."
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