Report on affordable housing welcome but now government must deliver

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Jun 2008

The Welsh Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson, Peter Black, has welcomed the report by former cabinet minister Sue Essex which has stated that housing associations should be allowed to borrow money in order to solve the affordable housing crisis; however he warned that the Government must now deliver on its targets.

Mrs Essex has recommended that if housing associations are allowed to borrow money against their existing stock then it will free up cash for further developments. She has also said that local councils must take a 'tougher' stance on forcing new developers to build a proportion of affordable housing, under section 106 planning agreements. Peter Black's own research has found that in the past five years only 1,816 affordable properties had been built using these agreements.

"Many of these recommendations were in the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly manifesto," said Mr. Black, "and as such we unreservedly welcome them. However, we now need to see some evidence of the One Wales Labour Plaid Cymru Government delivering on its own promises and targets."

"There are approximately 80,000 households on housing waiting lists yet despite this audit commission statistics have revealed that less than 1,000 new social housing units are being built each year. On that basis the Assembly Government will miss its own target of 6,500 new homes by 2011 by a mile. When scrutinised on this the Minister admitted that she still does not have the capacity to properly monitor her own target. That needs to change if we are to hold the Government to account on how they are helping people trying to get on the housing ladder. "The government's record of shelving reports such as this is very worrying. I look forward to this one being implemented."