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Jules Birch is an award-winning blogger who writes exclusive articles for Inside Housing
Housing policy in Wales remains far friendlier to the concept of social housing
Manifestos for the Welsh elections next week show a remarkably different climate to the country that borders it to the east, writes Jules Birch
The latest party to launch its manifesto for the Senedd election in Wales is promising 40,000 social homes over the next 10 years. Adjusting for population, that’s the equivalent of 715,000 in England.
The fact that this is the Welsh Conservatives is one pretty fair indication of the different political spectrum operating in Wales – they also criticise Labour’s record of delivering fewer than 3,000 affordable homes a year.
True, those ‘social’ homes could turn out to be something more ‘affordable’ and the Tories seem just as committed to homeownership as their English cousins. The party is campaigning to restore the Right to Buy (abolished in Wales in 2019) although it also pledges to reinvest the proceeds in more social housing and to protect homes from sale for 10 years.
It sets “an ambitious target” of 100,000 homes over the next 10 years and is also promising to raise the threshold for the Welsh equivalent of stamp duty and abolish it for first-time buyers alongside pledges of leasehold reform and a dedicated Fire Safety Fund to tackle unsafe cladding.
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The political spectrum has shifted even further towards social housing in Scotland, with the Conservative manifesto promising 60,000 new affordable homes, two-thirds of them for social rent, over the next term of the Scottish parliament.
That’s equivalent to more than 600,000 affordable homes over the next five years in England – and the manifesto is silent on restoring the Right to Buy.
Contrast that with housing minister Christopher Pincher’s performance at MHCLG questions on Monday. Tackled over social housing waiting lists, he boasted that 150,000 new homes for social rent have been delivered under Conservative governments over the past 10 years at the same time he promised to ‘double’ output to 32,000 over the next five.
“The political spectrum has shifted even further towards social housing in Scotland”
If something does not quite compute in those numbers, it was the old dodge of including the more than 100,000 social rent homes funded by the last Labour affordable housing programme but completed since 2010.
Exclude those, and homes delivered via Section 106, and less than 3,000 homes for social rent have been completed with central government grant funding over the past five years. Back in Wales, Welsh Labour has set a more ambitious target of 20,000 homes for social rent over the next five-year Senedd term but the other two main parties are both promising more than that.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats pledge 30,000 new homes for social rent while Plaid Cymru promises 50,000 ‘public homes’ including 30,000 as council or social housing, 5,000 for cost-rental and 15,000 affordable homes to buy.
On the private rented sector, Labour says it would develop a national scheme to restrict rents to Local Housing Allowance levels for families and young people who are priced out of the private rental market or who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Plaid would introduce a Fair Rents Bill, cap increases and end no-fault evictions and give local authorities the power to set a Living Rent rule capping rents in rental pressure zones at a third of the average local income – and also set an explicit goal of bringing house prices back within reach of the average citizen.
Second homes are a big housing issue in Wales, as last Friday’s Any Questions showed if you listen from nine minutes in.
Labour pledges to keep a one per cent tax increase on purchases, the Lib Dems say they would close tax loopholes and Plaid promises to use planning and tax powers to allow local authorities to set a cap on numbers and refuse permission for conversion from primary to secondary residences.
“New thinking about broader policy is evident in a Lib Dem promise to trial a Universal Basic Income”
All the main parties are promising action on homelessness and support for Housing First and the Conservatives put forward the interesting idea of appointing someone who has experienced homelessness as a Homelessness Commissioner to work on the drive to end rough sleeping.
New thinking about broader policy is evident in a Lib Dem promise to trial a Universal Basic Income. Plaid Cymru’s headline pledge of a referendum on independence if it wins on 6 May is accompanied by radical pledges including a Welsh Green Deal.
Either party could end up as part of the next Welsh government so this plus their support for legislation to enshrine the right to adequate housing in Welsh law could be significant.
However, to the disappointment of campaigners in the Welsh housing sector, the right to housing is not mentioned in the manifestos of the two parties leading in the polls, Labour and the Conservatives.
That aside, politics in Wales looks set to continue to be more housing-friendly than England has experienced in years.
Jules Birch, columnist, Inside Housing
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