Social housing: Vow to build 1,000 homes in Wales amid backlog

Thousands of people are stuck in temporary accomodation

The Welsh government has promised 1,000 new homes to help people stuck waiting for accommodation.

The £62m social housing scheme includes bringing unused properties back into use quickly, converting buildings, manufacturing "modular" homes and might involve turning offices into homes.

The homes will not have to meet the usual standards for new social housing.

Plaid Cymru said the plan was "nowhere near enough" to match the urgent demand for social housing.

Ministers say they will "actively consider" converting offices into accommodation if high quality plans for doing so are put forward.

In April, 7,999 people were in temporary accommodation, with about a quarter in hotels and B&Bs.

Housing charity Shelter Cymru said the figure includes 2,000 children, and that some temporary accommodation is of such extremely poor quality that parents are feeding their families without the use of a kitchen.

The number of people in temporary accommodation has risen from 3,566 in August 2020.

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This figure includes people housed because of the "everyone-in" policy to accommodate homeless people at the start of the pandemic.

Councils and social housing providers are bidding for the cash, and it is hoped the Welsh government programme will be completed within the next 18 months.

How the money will be spent

Almost half will be long-term homes, while the rest will be temporary accommodation that could be used as an alternative to B&Bs and hotels.

While they will need to follow guidance for properties to be fit for human habitation, social housing providers will not have to meet the standards the Welsh government sets for new social housing.

That could mean homes being smaller or the Welsh government even considering shared accommodation.

But the homes would still be expected to provide good enough space, insulation and daylight.

Of the £62m, roughly £12m is being spent on bringing 400 homes back to use which are already owned by social housing providers but need significant work.

A further £12m will be spent on modular homes which are built in a factory.

Some existing properties could be remodelled, while others could be demolished and rebuilt.

Plaid's spokeman for housing, Mabon ap Gwynfor, is concerned the plans did not go far enough.

The party said figures from 2020-21 showed 13,161 households were assessed as homeless that year.

Mr ap Gwynfor said: "This investment is to be welcomed insofar as it goes, but it's nowhere near enough to match the urgent and immediate demand.

"We need to see much more ambition from the Welsh government if we are to ensure that those in temporary accommodation get the housing they need."

He added: "I'm also extremely concerned that, with the significant cost of living increase due to come in in the autumn and winter that those numbers will only go up, with much more demand for urgent housing."

Conservative housing spokeswoman Janet Finch-Saunders welcomed the new funding but believed there had been a "missed opportunity" to seriously tackle homelessness as we moved out of the pandemic.

"Over the course of the pandemic, temporary accommodation was made available for people struggling with homelessness and now we are back to square one," she said.

"Labour ministers should have ensured that more was done to move people that were housed over the course of the pandemic into full time accommodation."

'Massive toll on people's health'

Ruth Power, chief executive of housing charity Shelter Cymru, welcomed the Welsh government scheme.

She said the charity is seeing more people "who have been stuck in temporary accommodation for months on end, sometimes waiting a year or more for a place to call home".

"Some of the accommodation is extremely poor quality, leaving some parents struggling to feed their families without a kitchen, and just a kettle or a microwave to prepare food.

"Living like this, and sharing basic facilities with strangers, takes a massive toll on people's health and on family life, and the numbers keep climbing month by month."

The scheme is separate to the Welsh government's target for 20,000 new low-carbon social homes for rent by 2026.

Welsh government Climate Change Minister Julie James said: "We have successfully helped thousands of people into temporary accommodation over the last two-and-a-half years but many more are still going to our local authorities for urgent help.

"Our ambition is for everyone to have a safe, suitable, permanent home but our housing system is under significant pressure, that's why we are building more social homes.

"Where people are in hotel or B&B-based temporary accommodation, in particular, it can be difficult for them to move on with their lives. We need more high-quality interim accommodation options - places they can call their own - to allow people to get on with their lives, while we support them to find a permanent home."

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