Elections May 2026: what are the key housing pledges in Wales?

Plaid Cymru 

Plaid Cymru’s manifesto is packed with detailed pledges on social housing, as well as warm homes and energy efficiency. The party wants to work with local authorities and social landlords to deliver at least 20,000 new social homes over the next Senedd term, which has returned to four years from five.

The pledge is therefore more ambitious than Labour’s current target for 20,000 social homes over five years, which it narrowly missed this year.

To achieve this acceleration in social homes delivery, Plaid wants to establish a new national development body named Unnos. One of the 46 policy aims of Plaid’s now-defunct 2021 co-operation agreement with Labour was the establishment of a national construction company under the same name. Unnos is taken from the Welsh term ‘tŷ unnos’, a tradition whereby a person could claim legal ownership of common land if they built a house in one night.

But Plaid’s manifesto says this will be a new body focused on land assembly, assistance with planning applications and innovation in construction methods.

Other policies to increase social housing supply include the reduction of regulatory barriers by having “more balanced energy efficiency requirements”. The party also wants to encourage investment in housebuilding via Welsh pension funds and look at options to develop new financial products through the Development Bank of Wales.

On warm homes, the manifesto says Plaid would make the renewal of Welsh housing stock “a national mission” if in government. This includes expanding access to retrofit schemes by adopting a tenure-neutral, area-based approach.

The party also promises to legislate for a ‘right to adequate housing’ in Wales, something that the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru has long called for.

On building remediation, Plaid pledges to speed up work on properties with unsafe cladding and other fire safety defects, including by strengthening oversight and enforcement where developers fail to meet deadlines.

The preservation of Welsh-speaking communities unsurprisingly forms a significant part of Plaid’s pitch to voters. One such policy is to “embed consideration of the Welsh language in the planning system”.

Reform UK 

Reform UK’s 33-page manifesto contains few specific details on social housing, but recognises that Wales faces a “serious housing shortage”. It says the country needs at least 10,000 additional homes “just to catch up”, but does not set a new homes target for the Senedd term.

To accelerate housebuilding, the party promises to intervene when planning decisions are slow and where Welsh councils are not using a Community Infrastructure Levy to secure infrastructure funding. 

One of Reform’s five core pledges is to “put Welsh people first”, which includes prioritising “Welsh men and women for social housing”. A Reform government would mandate local authorities to enforce a “strict 10-year residency requirement for social housing to put Welsh citizens at the front of the queue”. This is in line with the party’s national policy, the manifesto says.

The requirement would be waived for veterans, domestic abuse survivors and care leavers under 25. In Wales, councils already have discretion to apply a local connection test to ensure that resources are used for local people.

The manifesto does not go into detail about home energy efficiency, but it does set out a pledge to abolish the 2030 and 2040 devolved net zero target in Wales and “slash reporting requirements to the bare legal minimum”.

Welsh Labour 

Much of Welsh Labour’s manifesto sets out what the party has already achieved in government, alongside pledges for the future. On social housing, this includes £2bn investment to deliver 20,000 social homes in the current Senedd term, as well as the passage of landmark homelessness legislation.

Its top-line pledge for housing is a new target to build 100,000 new homes over the next decade, of which 40,000 will be for social rent. All new build homes would include renewable energy generation as standard, with solar panels as default, the manifesto says.

In order to accelerate building, Labour says it would establish a new national housing taskforce to reform the planning system and drive faster adoption of modern methods of construction.

A Labour government would also aim to bring more than 2,000 empty homes back into use and explore options to give councils more powers to tackle empty and run-down buildings. A recent report by the Bevan Foundation thinktank estimated that there are between 3,600 and 4,500 empty dwellings across Wales that could be suitable for purchase as social homes.

Labour’s manifesto also sets out a new goal to end homelessness by 2034, with a milestone to have no children placed in B&B accommodation by 2030. It is worth noting that most children in temporary accommodation as of January this year were in local authority housing stock rather than B&Bs. 

The party’s own Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Act, which passed earlier this year, aims to shift the focus on tackling homelessness to prevention. It will give local authorities the power to compel social landlords to accommodate someone owed a homelessness duty.

Welsh Conservatives

The Welsh Conservatives’ manifesto acknowledges that Wales is in the midst of a housing crisis, and blames Labour and Plaid Cymru for failing to build enough new homes to keep up with demand over the past 27 years. 

The manifesto places emphasis on homeownership, pledging to restore the Right to Buy in Wales and reinvest sale proceeds into more affordable housing to protect homes from sale for 10 years.

The Right to Buy, introduced across the UK in 1980, was abolished in Wales in 2019. Over four decades of the policy’s operation, the total social housing stock in Wales fell from more than 300,000 to around 230,000. 

On housebuilding, the Conservative Party says it will deliver 40,000 new homes by 2030, but there is no breakdown by tenure. The party would take an “infrastructure-first approach” to new housing developments and introduce incentives for local authorities to speed up planning decisions.

The manifesto also sets out several commitments to raise housing standards, including the creation of a fire safety fund to help “end the scourge of unsafe cladding”. The party would also implement a ban on new leasehold premises, while taking action to address existing unfair arrangements. 

On social housing, the Conservative Party would look to explore ‘deposit passporting’ for tenants, a policy whereby tenants can transfer rental deposits directly from an old tenancy to a new one. The party has told Inside Housing that it would work with the sector to develop a system that works for social housing tenants – who do not always have to pay deposits but are often required to pay rent in advance – to ensure a “smooth transition for them to different council properties”. 

The manifesto says the party would also require all councils and social landlords to give homeless veterans a top priority when allocating housing. 

To tackle wider homelessness, the party says it would develop a plan to “eradicate rough sleeping” in Wales and publish new guidance to address delays in homelessness provision due to cross-border local connection disputes.

Green Party

Housing features second in the Green Party’s list of seven key priorities, and creating a “fairer private rental market” forms a big part of this. The party promises to introduce a one-year rent freeze to “provide immediate relief”, followed by rent control that would allow Welsh ministers to approve local authority ‘rent pressure zones’ to keep housing affordable.

The party’s housing pledges also include a target to build 60,000 affordable homes over 10 years, which is in line with Community Housing Cymru’s demands ahead of the election. The manifesto commits to the majority of these homes being social housing. 

Other policies to boost supply include a moratorium on the sale of social housing and an expansion of the Social Housing Grant for councils and social landlords. In 2025-26, the grant scheme was allocated £437m as part of the Welsh government’s Budget. The party says it would ensure this investment “continues to grow”.

Like Labour, the Green Party highlights the opportunity of empty homes, promising to use compulsory purchase orders to bring them back into public housing stock. The manifesto also pledges to create a national social housing developer that can co-ordinate funding and work with the sector to develop at scale.

Unsurprisingly, the party sets out a number of policies on “greener, warmer homes”, such as ringfencing funding from the UK government’s Warm Homes Plan for use in Wales.

The Green Party would also look to stand up a national programme to co-ordinate area-based retrofits, and ensure building regulations require all new homes to meet low or net zero carbon standards. All new housing developments would be required to use heat pumps or other fossil-free heating systems.

To build skills in the retrofit workforce, the manifesto says housing associations would support training and employment programmes.

As part of policies aimed at ending homelessness, the Green Party says it will embed the right to adequate housing in Welsh law. It also promises to advocate for the removal of the freeze on the Local Housing Allowance, so it rises with the cost of living.

Welsh Liberal Democrats

The Welsh Liberal Democrats say that under Labour, affordable and social housing is “at crisis point”, while homelessness across Wales “remains shamefully high”. 

To address this, the Lib Dems’ manifesto says the party would build 30,000 social homes, prioritising brownfield land. The party would also look to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a 10-year emergency upgrade programme.

On homelessness, the manifesto says a Lib Dem government would urgently publish a cross-government plan to end rough sleeping and support multi-year funding for Housing First, a scheme to immediately house people experiencing homelessness and provide wrap-around support.

The Lib Dem Party also says that too many new homes are built as leasehold and the manifesto pledges to “end the scandal of leasehold tenure”.

Read the housing pledges for the local elections in Scotland