The Affordable Homes Delivery Plan established by this administration in 2016 set a very clear and ambitious target of delivering more than 1,000 additional homes over the next five years. What progress has been achieved to date?
Minutes:
“The affordable Homes Delivery Plan established by this administration in 2016 set a very clear and ambitious target of delivering more than 1,000 additional homes over the next five years. What progress has been achieved to date?”
Response by Councillor Linda Evans, Executive Board Member for Housing:-
Thank you Councillor Williams for your question. It’s a very relevant question and gives me an opportunity to highlight the excellent work that has been done, and will continue to be done as far as in increasing the number of affordable homes in the County.
Back in 2016 an ambitious target was set by this administration to provide over 1,000 additional affordable homes by 2021. By now, we are two years into this programme and, as well as being on the right track to achieve the target. I am very pleased to say that we are confident that the number of new homes will be considerably higher than what we intended at the start. I am confident we can provide more choice by increasing the number of options for renting homes and homes to sell across the County. So far, we have provided almost 550 extra affordable homes in the county and that’s by buying houses in the private sector, bringing empty properties back into use and managing additional private rent homes for landlords, new homes by working with the housing associations and affordable homes as part of larger developments. Over the next three years our intention is to provide 700 more houses by using these approaches. I’m sure that you have noticed that these figures do not include our plans to build new homes but I can assure you that these developments are going ahead. The builders will be on the Garreglywd site in Pembrey over the next few months/ weeks and the development in Dylan, at the Bryn will follow before Christmas. These developments will provide almost 50 new council homes to rent. I’m sure that some of you, as members have heard recently about the intention to slacken the HRA rules. This means that we will possibly be able to borrow more money to build more council homes and officers at the moment are developing an ambitious programme to ensure we can take advantage of this and, before long, I will be announcing the details of that programme to you in the Council. Members are aware that we have also set a new homes company, Cartrefi Croeso. Five Hundred houses will be provided over the next five years and the company has already prepared plans on seven locations including developments in rural areas. The company will find a range of options, which will be suitable for the needs of the area. An example is houses which will be affordable to buy in rural areas to help local people to stay local. It’s obvious that we therefore are taking great steps in order to meet the needs regarding affordable homes across the county. There are plans also to support our intention with the regeneration of Llanelli Town Centre, Ammanford and Carmarthen. Also rural developments and areas such as Station Road in Llanelli where the change of tenancy is required. All of these things will have a significant impact. They will not only help people to live in affordable homes, which are much needed, but they will also have a wider impact on the health of people and their well-being and give opportunity for employment. We have invested £25m in the last two years and we want to invest much more in the next few years. Even though what we have done in a short period of time has been a great success, we can see that we are not just sitting around. We will continue to be innovative and work hard to provide as many affordable homes as possible, and in those areas where they are needed by ensuring that what’s provided is right for the area. Can I take the opportunity to thank all the staff from different departments in the Council who work alongside one another to ensure we reach where we have got to. My thanks go to you all. Our affordable homes plan to me is like a book. It’s a book full of exciting stories. We designed the cover of this book two years ago. The cover was quite colourful with many houses. It’s a book containing an exciting story. I’ve only given you the first episodes of that book, there is many more episodes to come in this story and I look forward to giving you another chapter in the near future. Thank you”.
Councillor Williams asked the following supplementary question:-
“Based on the figures that you referred to in your response. From remembering when we travel through Carmarthenshire, we can see so many empty properties, some of them which have been empty for many years, and they are in a bad state of repair as a result of the continuous waiting over time. So can I therefore ask, and I’m referring to the figure that was mentioned, the figure of 550 affordable housing that have now been brought back into use, how many of them were empty properties for many years?”
Response by Councillor Linda Evans – Executive Board Member for Housing:-
I can announce today, and I have a pleasure in announcing this. Before I do that actually, can I just tell you how many empty properties have come back into use. The process of getting an empty property back into use is quite a process in itself. The easiest way is to buy homes to make them affordable and buy homes which are suitable for the area. But the process of dealing with an empty property can be a long process because many things are associated with it, legal issues etc. But the good news is that we have excellent officers in this department and in 2018/19 we have brought back 184 empty properties, last year it was 174 and if you compare that with ten years ago, 2010, when we brought 59 empty properties back into use. So the department and the work is working very well and we will be continuing to do that, and continuing to ensure that empty properties are brought back into use because we are all aware that having an empty house in a village or a street is not pleasant to look at and it’s not good for the environment either. So building new homes, we are doing that, but ensuring that empty properties, which can be brought back into use are done and the council can help people to do that. So if you know of people who have empty properties, please approach them and encourage them to contact the Council. It is possible to get a financial loan to bring them back into use. Thank you.