Housing Cabinet Secretary: ‘We need an ambitious house building target’

Daniel Bevan - Editor

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Wales’ Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government has told Businessin Wales that she would like to see an “ambitious” house-building target from her party ahead of the Senedd election.

Jayne Bryant MS, the Welsh Labour Member for Newport West in the Welsh Parliament, also said she was now confident of hitting the current social homes target by November this year.

The Cabinet Secretary isn’t a stranger to hard hats and building sites, having visited many as a child with her father, a plasterer and tiler.

After re-election in 2021, the Welsh Government promised to build 20,000 new low-carbon social houses, which they are on track to hit despite a backdrop of inflation, post-pandemic disruption and rising construction costs.

“I think that is a huge achievement, [thanks to] a real effort put in by everybody,” she said.

“Not just government, but the wider sector in Wales, as well, who’ve come behind us and really focused on that target.

“That’s the purpose of the target, to drive that investment and change.”

“Behind the headline figure, it’s now estimated completions will reach over 18,600 by the end of April, ahead of voters heading to the polls, before passing the 20,000 mark in November.

She said: “The amount of people who said we would never get anywhere near it, to actually now be able to say that we’re on track to hit that is great and that’s a testament to everyone involved.”

“What we’ve done here in Wales is sustained investment, we’ll have put over £2bn into this in this Senedd term alone that’s no mean feat and I think shows our commitment to social housing.”

“We’ve also seen that the pipeline is so important. That continued investment and continued policy intention has really driven that.

“It is a real achievement from local authorities to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to the builders. Everybody has played a part in that.”

While welcoming the progress, Bryant stressed the Welsh Government had no intention of slowing down once the target is reached.

“I don’t want to rest on my laurels either. Absolutely, we need more homes and that is what we’re doing.

“We’re building and we are acquiring more homes in Wales, and I want to see that continue not just next year but into the future,” she said.

Bryant said the achievement was particularly significant given the pandemic disruption at the start of the term.

But she acknowledged that pressures in the wider housing market remained intense, with affordability continuing to dominate concerns among buyers and developers.

“We all know that the challenges across the UK — and actually we see it across Western Europe and the rest of the world,” she said.

Bryant pointed to new large-scale developments as evidence that Wales was still attracting investment.

She said: “Recently, I’ve just signed off for Barratt Redrow and we’ll see the biggest net-zero housing development in the UK. That’s 576 properties and half of those will be affordable.

“But we absolutely know we need to keep driving. We want to see all tenures doing well here in Wales.

“I think the challenges that we have are not unique. House building is absolutely crucial for us. We have kept Help to Buy here, which, since April 2022, 85% of those people using Help to Buy are actually first-time buyers.

“That’s something we’ve invested in, so there are things that we’re doing to ensure that we are getting more people onto the housing ladder. We know that’s important.”

Alongside new-build delivery, the Welsh Government is placing renewed emphasis on unlocking stalled sites and bringing empty homes back into use.

An affordable homes taskforce has produced more than 40 recommendations, some of which focused on planning reform and speeding up development.

Bryant said changes to an empty homes scheme were already bearing fruit after the government piloted removing a 10% local authority contribution.

“Whereas there were five local authorities that weren’t taking part in that empty property scheme, since I’ve taken that off as a pilot, three of the other local authorities are coming on board.

“Because we want to bring empty properties back into use. We know we need to not just build, but to use what we’ve got.”

Energy efficiency and running costs are also rising up the agenda as the government tries to ensure new and existing homes remain affordable to occupy.

Bryant highlighted the Optimised Retrofit Programme, which is upgrading older housing stock with modern insulation and low-carbon technologies.

Since 2020, the programme has funded 31,000 energy-efficiency upgrades to social homes across Wales, cutting household bills whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“We have to be on top of that. [We are] making sure that we’re investing in properties that have been built already as well as those new properties that we’re building. We need to make sure both are fit for purpose and fit for the future.”

With a Senedd election approaching in May, attention is now turning to what comes after the 20,000-home milestone.

Bryant indicated that Labour’s manifesto would include a new, longer-term target designed to maintain momentum and provide certainty to the industry.

“That target of the 20,000, I’ve really seen myself how that’s driven the ambition and the whole sector has been really focused on it.

“I would like to see an ambitious target, probably over a longer period because one of the things that I’ve found that has really been important to the sector is that long-term investment and the long-term target as well.”

“I think a stretching target is really important. But we know we need to build more homes, as well, in the private sector,” she concluded.