Thursday 21 March 2019

MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS FIRST MINISTER TO SUPPORT COUNCIL HOUSE BUILDING


MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS FIRST MINISTER TO SUPPORT COUNCIL HOUSE BUILDING



Speaking after First Minister’s Questions, Swansea East AM Mike Hedges said… I have long been an enthusiast for Council Housing and it is wonderful that Swansea Council are now building council houses again; the new energy efficient houses show the way how all houses should be built in the future. The homes as power generators scheme in the Swansea City Deal will bring further savings for householders. The new and innovative designs in housing are coming in the public housing sector.



Now is the time to build more council homes and I asked the First Minister how the Welsh Government can aid Council Housing. I welcome the lifting of the borrowing cap later this week. I think that building up the skills base within the construction sector is an idea which will have many positive spin offs, and I will await the outcome of the Affordable Housing Review in April; I expect that it will come forward with several proposals which I will actively support.’



·         Mike Hedges AM

·         7. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's policy on council housing? OAQ53589


·         Our policy is to support local authorities to build council housing at significantly increased scale and within the shortest achievable timescale.90




·         Mike Hedges AM - Can I again stress the importance of building council houses to deal with the housing crisis facing Wales? Will the First Minister join me in sending congratulations to Swansea on their new council homes new being occupied and also those under construction? But, what more can the Welsh Government do to overcome the constraints on councils building council dwellings in large numbers, which is what you said in your first answer?91


·         Thank you very much for that. I'd certainly agree on congratulating Swansea on the work that they are doing, particularly the innovative housing methods and doing all of this at the same time, I know, as having to concentrate on reaching the Welsh quality housing standards, which the council is very close now to completing. I think that there are three different things that we can do to speed up and increase the number of houses being built by local authorities in Wales.92

·         The Member, I know, will be pleased to know that the borrowing cap will be formally lifted on Welsh local authorities on Friday of this week, when the necessary legislation that we have to complete will be brought to fruition. So, funding will be, for some local authorities, certainly, more plentifully available than would otherwise be the case.93

·         Secondly, there is the whole business of skills, knowledge and capacity. We will have to do more, and the sector will have to do more, working with housing associations and others, to make sure that local authorities have the ability, beyond money, to take on this additionally important role that we want to see them discharge.94

·         Thirdly, we will need to look to see what we can do at the Welsh Government level. My colleague Rebecca Evans instituted a review of our affordable housing strategy. That will report at the end of April. Two of the 10 workstreams in that review are specifically involved in looking at ways in which we can get local authorities in Wales building more council housing and building them more quickly.


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