Housing: Use old buildings to tackle crisis, says charity

Housing Justice Cymru are working with Albany Road Baptist Church to renovate one of their old buildings in Cardiff into flats

More needs to be done to renovate old buildings in order to tackle the housing crisis, according to charities.

Housing Justice Cymru said making better use of empty properties in town and city centres would also help those communities to thrive.

It comes after recent figures suggested that up to 120,000 homes in Wales - one in 12 - may be empty.

One resident in the worst-affected county, Gwynedd, described his eight-month search as "heart-breaking".

Adam Lewis recently moved to Bargoed, Caerphilly county, after starting a job as a chiropractor.

At one stage he was having to look 20 miles away in Newport and Cardiff due to a lack of options.

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"I looked online for about a month and a half, pretty solid, and places would just disappear like that," he said.

In the end he found a property in the village that had been renovated into flats.

He believes in making the most of already-existing buildings: "It's just another form of recycling - there's no point leaving places derelict."

Renter Adam Lewis was having to look 20 miles away from where he works to find accommodation

Dafydd Roberts from Caernarfon, Gwynedd, has not been so lucky and has found the competition fierce during his eight-month search for a rental home.

"We went to see a property a few weeks ago and over 250 people applied for it, it is heart-breaking," he said.

Recent ONS figures showed Gwynedd had the highest percentage of empty properties in Wales, with second homes being a significant proportion of those.

Craig ab Iago, cabinet member on housing for Gwynedd's council - Cyngor Gwynedd, described the situation as "immoral and completely unsustainable".

The former church hall on Cardiff's Albany Road that's to be redeveloped

He said the council had taken several steps to address the issue, such as raising the council tax premium on second homes to providing grants to those with empty properties to renovate them.

The authority has also bought houses itself and rented them out.

Housing Justice Cymru is one charity that helps to convert older buildings into suitable housing.

"It's really important to look at the future of housing, as well as addressing the housing crisis now," said the charity's director Bonnie Williams.

"People need to live and work around communities where there is access to amenities and transport, maybe where they've lived and grown up."

Other charities such as Shelter Cymru have spoken of the need to combine bringing empty homes back into use.

The Welsh government, which launched a £50m National Empty Homes Grant Scheme earlier this year, said: "We believe that everybody has a right to a decent, affordable home to buy or to rent in their own communities so they can live and work locally."

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