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Welsh government demands 50% affordable housing on new developments
Wales’ housing minister is calling on planning departments across the country to demand that at least 50% of housing on development sites be affordable.
Julie James, Labour’s minister for housing and local government at the Welsh Assembly, said she will write to councils to make sure they are “taking all opportunities to create housing developments with at least 50% affordable housing”.
She added: “With the removal of the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap and support from the Welsh government to build affordable housing, I want them to ensure this is a key part of reviewing their local development plans.”
The move comes alongside the Welsh administration’s response to the Independent Review of Affordable Housing Supply, which was published in May.
Ministers have accepted all but one of the review’s recommendations, including a call for a five-year rents policy for social housing and reform of grant funding for the sector.
A rent policy for post-April 2020 will be announced before the Assembly breaks up for summer recess on 22 July, and the Welsh government will work with councils and housing associations to develop a new grant system.
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Councils will also be able to access housebuilding grant, while social landlords will be consulted on a new strategy to step up use of modern methods of construction to create near zero-carbon homes.
The Welsh government will wait until autumn to respond to the review’s call for Help to Buy in Wales to be targeted more towards first-time buyers so it “is more evidently part of the affordable housing supply mix”.
Ms James said: “I am clear that our significant investment in affordable housing must be used as effectively as possible, where it is needed most. This is why I am taking action based on the review recommendations.”
The Welsh government’s Planning Policy Wales document does not currently prescribe a threshold for affordable housing requirements.
Analysis released by the Welsh government last month concluded intermediate and social homes should make up 47% of the total homes built in Wales up to the end of 2022/23, in order to meet demand.
Stuart Ropke, chief executive at Community Housing Cymru, said: “The minister’s intention to ensure half of all homes built in Wales are affordable is hugely ambitious, and housing associations are up for that challenge.
“We want to see a Wales where good housing is a basic right for all and that means working together in new ways to tackle the housing crisis.
“Housing associations have always put affordability at the heart of their rent setting, and we are pleased to see the minister focus on this in today’s response.
“Welsh government now has a real opportunity to support genuine, robust and meaningful decision making between landlord and tenant, by providing a long term, sustainable rent settlement this summer.”
Matt Dicks, director of the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru, welcomed the Welsh government’s decision to accept the recommendations and call for 50% affordable housing, but said it must provide “long-term investment” to meet the review’s ambitions.
Update: at 09.58am, 09/07/19 comments from Stuart Ropke and Matt Dicks were added to the story.
At-a-glance: key recommendations from the Independent Review of Affordable Housing Supply in Wales
- Councils should be required to provide regular, standardised Local Housing Market Assessments
- New “consolidated and simplified” standards for grant-funded and Section 106 homes should be developed, concentrating on minimum space standards, including for inside and outside storage
- All new affordable homes should be near zero carbon/Energy Performance Certificate ‘A’ standard from 2021, with all homes achieving the same standards by 2025 irrespective of tenure
- The Welsh government should develop a strategy for further use of offsite manufacturing and modern methods of construction
- A new five-year rent policy from 2020/21, with new flexibilities and a focus on landlords considering value for money as well as affordability
- Councils should be able to access grant and be encouraged to partner with housing associations
- A new arm’s-length body to act as a hub for public sector land management
- Grants should be reformed to introduce a new “flexible, long-term, five-year affordable housing supply partnerships model”, which combines existing funding pots and tests “the contribution of private finance and alternative finance models”
- The Welsh government should commission an independent financial review of councils and large-scale voluntary transfer housing associations receiving Dowry and Major Repairs Allowance to help them meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS)
- Landlords “should be required to demonstrate an accelerated programme of decarbonisation of existing homes” in order to continue receiving the funding once WHQS is achieved
