The Welsh Government has said it is on target to provide 10,000 affordable homes by May 2016.
Official statistics show that 2,416 affordable homes were delivered during 2013/14 – an 18% increase on the previous year.
The total number of additional affordable homes provided so far during this Assembly term is 6,890.
Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister Lesley Griffiths welcomed the figures.
She said: “I am delighted we are 69% of the way towards meeting our ambitious affordable homes target with two more years of delivery to go. This is incredibly encouraging.
“With the UK Government cuts and welfare reform hitting the people of Wales hard, it is imperative we continue to work hard and to provide more good quality, safe and affordable homes.
“These latest statistics are a clear signal of our continued commitment to housing and of the excellent progress made to date.
“Despite our progress, we will not rest on our laurels. We will continue to use innovative ways to fulfil our affordable housing needs.”
In its recent draft budget for 2015/16, the Welsh Government announced £10 million for the Affordable Housing Land programme, a new pilot scheme which will increase the supply of affordable housing in Wales by boosting the funding options available to local authorities and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to acquire land for housing developments.
Ms Griffiths added: “A key part of reason why we are on course to meet our target is because of the work of our housing associations. I would like to thank them for their commitment and innovative approaches to delivering the affordable homes much needed across the country.”
Housing statistics show that in Caerphilly County Borough, 162 new affordable homes were built in the last financial year – up from the 144 built in 2012/13.
This financial year, 260 new affordable homes will be built in the county borough.
Oh dear, dear, dear! There needs to be new roads, new schools , new hospitals, new GP surgeries, new modern leisure facilities, more salt stocks for these new roads, new sewage works and new nationals energy before there are new houses.
Building houses is a political move but not pragmatic. There needs to be more infrastructure before houses.
Dean is correct, what is the point of building houses when the infrastructure is creaking? What is the point of building houses when there are no jobs locally? All this building programme achieves is the destruction of the open spaces vital to the well being of people who already live in the areas affected.
Somehting needs to be done about the long term empty properties that exist in tens of thousands. I know of at least 10 houses that have been empty for years within easy walking distance of my houses, one of these has been empty for 12 years! Before I read this article I was, coincidentally, talking with a local resident who told me that the house next to him had been empty for eight years.
What happens is that the owners demolish a kitchen or knock down an internal wall and provide themselves with a minature land bank that they pay no council tax on. Why not pass a law that requires a house owner to either rent or put for sale a house in their possession within a designated time, let’s say a year or 18 months. Failure to comply would attract a council tax of three times the band rate for the particular property. This would quickly free up housing in every Welsh community and stop the senseless building on our open spaces.
I fully agree with you but I feel introducing a law along those lines would lead to developers being taxed for genuine troubles encountered along the way. We’ve all seen Grand Designs where a complex build ends up taking over 3 years to complete. Would the owner of the house which is still unsuitable for life (maybe it’s complete but hasn’t been furnished or decorated) be eligible for the extra tax? In a fair world, no, but how is a line drawn between pointlessly holding onto a property and near-completed renovations overrunning?
As with all laws sometimes the innocent suffer but genuine renovations that take longer than 18 months must be quite rare and are usually undertaken by the homeowner who actully lives in habitable rooms at the dwelling or in a temporary accomodation such as a caravan at the property. This means the property remains the home address of the owner and no penalty would be incurred.
It would be wrong to do nothing to protect our open spaces in order to protect developers who just sit on empty homes. I was supplied with a figure of 26,000 empty homes in Wales by my accreditaion body (NHER) some two years ago. The definition was those dwellings that have been empty for more than a year.
The point we are both making is that this house building craze is politically motivated rather than arising from need. In the second half of the 19th century there was a massive influx of people into Caerffili, and other South Wales villages, as there was work in the area in the mines and railways. The developers in those days also built schools, shops, hospitals, courts, police stations, roads and railways. The workers themselves built institutes, clubs and libraries for the use of the increasing population.
In the 21st century we are building social housing in areas where there is no work and little money. This is bonkers and will result in communities with poor facilities and dependent on the state for their income whilst the most motivated and brightest people leave to work elsewhere leaving behind a ghetto of the impoverished.
With over 500 new affordable homes being built in a Caerphilly that equates to over £3million from the Community Infrastructure Levy over three years, and there is also the Levy from the other few hundred odd new homes being built – the not affordable ones! So where is all this money raised from the Infrastructure Levy being spent, apart from sticking a few pieces of gym equipment in a park.
Paul, it is worth noting that it is intended that the levy collected in the Caerffili basin is mostly to be spent in other parts of the borough. The figures are 85% to go to the borough and only 15% to Caerffili Town Council. So far there have been no cheques forthcoming. Even if there were I question whether the Town Council should be responsible for infrastructure, especially as CIL cannot be spent on maintenance.
If the Town Council installed some infrastructure using this money it would have to foot the bill for maintenance and repair from its existing budget, most of which is spent on initiatives that benefit people who live within the Town Council boundary. The growing cost of maintenance of various structures would detract from the money available to spend on good causes. Alternatively we, as a council, would have to apply for money from the Borough to meet these costs. I do not think that in these difficult times money would be made available from that source.
The Welsh Assembly has recently announced a number of , what it may consider to be good news stories in preparation to condition voters for the next election in 2015 the one after that 2016, ( for Assembly seats) and the local government elections. Thats good, Thats Normal, and in some ways thats acceptable. Housing provision being one of those good news issues.
But, why not also explain to what degree the Welsh Tax payer contributes towards subsidising the Drinking Bars in the Assembly Building?, When Assembly members purchase wine and other product to take home as part of these bars off licence facility how much of the price of these items, enjoyed by Assembly Members families, is subsidised by the Welsh Tax payers?
There has been recent news that due to incidents of suspected or potential drunken incompitence of some Assembly Members and some Welsh Assembly, privilaged staff, using these facilities during the day, the speaker has decided they will no open until 5pm daily..
£300,000 spent on supporting and reconfiguring GP servcies to further ensure Patient Centered Services in Wales. Good News, but £600,000 TOWARDS FURTHER COSTS on refurbishing The Beeches at the Miners hospital site Caerphilly, owned, by United Welsh Housing Association, spot the deliberate mistake here,? answer; the money not spent on social housing by the beneficiary of this huge financial grant, a Housing Association, or any other housing provision. The Question is, Who at the Assembly. i.e. which Minister, authorised this enormous grant on refurbishment of a disused building? instead of ensuring all that money is spent on housing provision by beneficiary United Welsh Housing Association?.
Citizens Sleeping on the streets of Wales, yet the Welsh Assembly making available over £3 Million pound in grants to local authorities to provide proper provision for homeless people. Where`s that money gone?, how has it been spent?, tell us something about that money in press releases, they wont of course, no votes in it.