In September, Audit Wales published a report warning that the Welsh government will fall short of its target to build 20,000 social homes by March 2026 without significant additional spending.
The Welsh housing secretary Jayne Bryant has established an Affordable Housing Taskforce aimed at resolve blockages in delivering homes.
Bryant has appointed Lee Waters, who previously served as deputy minister for climate change in Wales, to lead the taskforce.
In a written statement to the Senedd, Bryant said: “The delivery of more homes is, and must remain, inextricably linked to our ambition to end homelessness in Wales”.
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This comes after Bryant sent letters to local authorities and registered providers over the summer “with a challenge to do everything within our collective power to deliver every additional home possible”.
In October, Bryant announced that she was reviewing options to establish an Affordable Homes Taskforce.
In her statement, she said that “I have now given this my full consideration, and I believe that a focus on practical support and action in unlocking and advancing affordable housing developments is key”.
Bryant stated that her engagement with sector partners provided “valuable feedback” on the potential blockages they face in delivering some schemes by the end of this Senedd term in 2026.
She added: “We have taken action to respond to the challenges, but it is right that we must continue to challenge ourselves to explore what more can be done to aid the delivery of more affordable homes in Wales.”
The immediate focus of Waters’ role will be on short-term actions to accelerate delivery of homes in the Welsh government’s current build programme.
The workstream will also explore opportunities to use publicly owned sites on an interim basis, leveraging modern construction methods to deliver homes within the current Government term.
The longer-term focus of Waters’ role will be informed by issues identified when addressing short-term challenges. The delivery group will make recommendations for practical system changes to streamline the delivery of more social homes.
Waters will be supported by a small core group of sector specialists and draw on wider expertise as necessary.
The Welsh government has a target to deliver 20,000 low carbon social rent homes by March 2026.
By the end of 2023-24, three years into the five-year programme, the Welsh government estimated that it had secured fewer than 50% of the 20,000 social homes.
In a report by Audit Wales which was published in September, it warned that the 20,000 social homes target will not be met without significant additional spending.
Government projections suggest that between 3,084 and 3,422 affordable homes that count towards the target were delivered in 2023-24.
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