Affordable Housing

Written by Kirsty Williams AM and published in County Times 2nd November 2007 on Fri 2nd Nov 2007

Powys had the third highest average house prices in Wales for 2006, with the average house price being £159,000. Since 1999 there has been an average price increase of 169.5%! For most of us these are crazy figures for young families and first time buyers these are beyond crazy they are simply unaffordable. Across Wales as a whole house prices in 2006 were 6.28 times full-time pay rates. In Powys this figure was at 7.95 - the 4th highest ratio in Wales. A worrying pattern of inequality is beginning to emerge, with all of the 9 local authorities classified as rural having the highest house price to earnings ratios in Wales. This means that in country areas such as ours, this problem is bigger than areas more traditionally seen as being deprived such as the Valleys. Surprising to some, not so surprising to the 305 people in Powys who contacted the council regarding their homelessness between April and June of this year and the steady stream of constituents who contact me on the issue.

It is great news then that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has launched a Commission on Rural Housing in Wales. House building in Wales is at its lowest level since World War Two, and coupled with empty and expensive second homes we are left with a real shortage of homes that local people can afford.

Parts of southern Powys have been lucky enough to have the benefit of a rural housing enabler, who has had some success working as an honest broker with communities, landowners and local authorities to provide affordable housing. I believe that this service should now be rolled out across the rest of Powys. Local Authority's Unitary Development Plans should include provisions for more affordable housing for local people, with land being allocated for this purpose. The Labour/Plaid Assembly government could also increase the money they give to Councils and Housing Associations be increased, so that they have more resources to build more housing. We need innovative ways of providing shared equity schemes to those priced out of the market. More ambitious thresholds could be set for developers to build a higher percentage of affordable local needs housing. The government should also be promoting the development of Community Land Trusts, similar to that found in Llanbedr which I recently took the Welsh Minister for Housing to visit as a shining example of what local communities can and are doing.

A lack of affordable housing not only affects those unable to buy, it also has a huge impact upon the type of communities we are forming; as young people are priced out of rural areas the population and the workforce decreases leading to reduced economic and social activity and the resultant loss of local services and amenities such as schools and shops.

Across Wales as a whole we are said to have a shortage of 40,000 affordable homes. It will be no mean feat to make these available to the young and the disadvantaged who have quite simply been priced out of the market. I hope the creation of this commission will mark the beginning of the tidal shift that is needed to put rural affordable housing higher up on the Government's agenda, as it so clearly deserves to be.