The Senedd’s local government and housing committee have published a report titled Social Housing Supply, making recommendations to the Welsh Parliament to increase the supply of social housing
The social housing report uses evidence from a range of key stakeholders on the barriers to increasing social housing and opportunities for increasing supply.
Evidence was also gathered from the cabinet secretary for housing and local government, round table discussions with local authorities, housing associations, and the construction sector.
The social housing report shows a high demand
The most recent data shows that 13,539 households were assessed as homeless in Wales in 2023-2024, with 11,384 people in temporary accommodation, 2,936 of which are children under 16.
139,000 people were on the waiting list for social housing as of October 2023, showing a desperate need for social housing as Wales is in what the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Cymru called a housing crisis.
As a result of the information gathered, the report makes 17 recommendations:
“1. We recommend that the Welsh Government improves its understanding of housing need by reviewing its approach to data. This should include: monitoring and evaluating the new LHMA methodology; considering how LHMAs could be linked up with other data sources; costing out different methodologies for a Welsh Housing Survey including length of survey cycle; and how the Welsh Government intends to monitor and evaluate its data framework.
“2. We recommend that the Welsh Government publishes a full data breakdown of homes delivered towards the 20,000 target so far, showing how many homes delivered this term are for social rent, intermediate rent, shared ownership and temporary accommodation.
“3. We recommend that the Welsh Government proactively works with local authorities and housing associations to address the need for one-bed homes. This approach should make the most of acquisitions, remodelling and infill sites to provide homes within existing mixed communities as much as possible.
“4. The Welsh Government should aim for social housing to comprise a critical mass of at least 20 per cent of the housing stock, and up to a third in the longer term. The Welsh Government should develop a strategy for delivery which sets out how close to 20 per cent Wales can get within the next Senedd term.
“5. We recommend that the Welsh Government establishes a national development corporation to lead on delivery of large-scale strategic sites and to support alignment of housing and regeneration efforts. As part of this it should review the future role of Unnos and whether it could fulfil the function of a national development corporation and land agency. The Welsh Government should consider a development corporation’s potential functions, powers and duties in relation to delivering new towns, urban extensions and rural development; and any other necessary functions.
“6. We recommend that the Welsh Government increases the allocation for the Social Housing Grant at the earliest opportunity and considers the merits of establishing a community of practice specifically for the grant.
“7. We recommend that the Welsh Government engages with the Development Bank of Wales to enable the DBW to become a direct funder of social housing developments.
“8. We recommend that the Welsh Government provides social landlords with greater multi-year funding certainty. This should include greater certainty over rent policy, the TACP, and how decarbonisation of existing stock will be funded.
“9. We recommend that the Welsh Government work with TPAS Cymru and tenants’ associations to develop a separate standard for acquisitions of permanent social homes. This work should be completed within six months.
“10. We recommend that the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government works collaboratively with the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership to develop a strategy for attracting more people into the construction industry. This strategy must have the necessary funding and measurable targets, and should be shared with the Committee by May 2025.
“11. We recommend that the Welsh Government analyses what is causing delays and barriers in the statutory consultee process. The Welsh Government should share its findings with us and the steps it intends to take to address these issues.
“12. The Welsh Government should explore how it can capture more land value for the public benefit. As part of this, the Welsh Government should redouble efforts to seek devolution of powers to introduce a Vacant Land Tax.
“13. We recommend that the Welsh Government explores how it can ensure that section 106 policy compliance is fully reflected in land values. This should include publishing national viability guidance as a Technical Advice Note; ensuring that viability assessments are published; and providing centralised expert advice to local planning authorities.
“14. We recommend that the Welsh Government work with local authorities on unlocking the potential of smaller sites within existing communities. This should include encouraging local planning authorities to package small sites together locally or regionally and reviewing the standard viability model for Social Housing Grant to assist viability for small sites.
“15. We recommend that the Welsh Government works across the public sector ensure greater transparency in public land ownership, and bringing information and expertise into a central place that is easily accessible to all.
“16. We recommend that the Welsh Government looks again at the proposal to establish a revolving loan fund for community-led housing.
“17. We recommend that the Welsh Government considers funding Community Housing Enablers across all local authorities.”
CIH Cymru offered evidence and welcomed the recommendations
The evidence provided by CIH for the social housing report showed the gap between supply and demand of social housing, and also highlighted the conclusion in a September report by Audit Wales that said a further £600m could be needed to deliver on social housing.
The Audit Wales report said: “Welsh government establishes a national development corporation to lead on the delivery of large-scale strategic sites and support alignment of housing and regeneration efforts. This recommendation also asks Welsh government to explore whether Unnos could fulfil the function of a national development corporation and land agency.”
Matt Dicks, national director of CIH Cymru, said: “We welcome the significant recommendations made by the committee. It is encouraging to see how this report echoes calls from the sector for more investment into the social housing grant programme, as well as longer-term certainty over funding. Whilst we have seen record levels of investment into the social housing grant programme, these monies are not going as far as they once did due to inflationary pressures. Additional monies will ensure that social housing providers can continue to develop the homes we need, at the pace and scale required to end the housing emergency.”
“We also welcome the recommendations around creating an arms-length national development agency, making Unnos what it was intended to be – the mechanism to bring together all the component parts required to scale up housing development in Wales. The innovators, the land, the planning capacity, the contractors the social landlord, the supply chains, and more all under one enabling mechanism to ensure that homelessness is truly rare, brief and non-recurring.”
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