Call for council houses to be built to help the poorest people in Conwy

Conwy ^[1] should build council homes for the “poorest people”, says a concerned Old Colwyn ^[2] councillor. But whilst the authority’s lead member for housing acknowledged there was a serious issue, she appeared to blame decisions made by cabinets gone by.

The debate ensued whilst Conwy’s cabinet discussed the council’s five-year Local Housing Strategy Review and Consultation, which sets out a “strategic vision and priorities for housing”. Whilst a report was published in 2018 detailing actions for delivery up to 2023, a new paper outlines the proposed plan to develop the housing strategy between 2024 – 2029.

Cabinet were tasked with approving the report before consultation, but part of the housing strategy outlined how Welsh Government funding could provide affordable housing and bring empty properties back into use. But Old Colwyn councillor David Carr questioned why Conwy ^[3] wasn’t building council houses – and suggested the authority should return to building homes for the “poorest people”.

Conwy transferred around 3,800 council homes to Cartrefi Conwy, an independent not-for-profit social landlord, in 2008. “I mean they’ve (Welsh Government) hardly spent anything on housing in the last 20 years,” said Cllr Carr.

“We (the council) can have all these strategies, and we can have all these meetings and do all this. We’ve still got a problem because we haven’t got the housing for some of the poorest people.

“Would Emily (Cllr Owen) agree with me that the only way forward is that we go back to building council housing? We need housing in Conwy for some of the poorest people who can’t afford to buy, and affordable housing is out of the reach of somebody who is on an average wage in my ward, so we really need to look at and think about building housing ourselves.”

He added: “We do need to build housing on brownfield sites in this county, and that is the only way forward. We can have all these strategies; we can have all these meetings and these policies, and we can all sit down and chat about it, but we are not getting people housed.”

What do you think needs to be done to address the housing crisis? Let us know using the comments below.^[5]

Cabinet member for housing Cllr Emily Owen responded: “I think the problem is that we all agree we need to build more housing and more affordable housing. The problem is that me sitting here saying ‘yes, we need more affordable housing’ isn’t going to build affordable housing. That will take three to four years to get, to go from agreeing that we are going to put housing on to getting the houses built and tenants in because of the very lengthy processes.”

Cllr Owen explained Welsh Government funding would allow the council to purchase existing properties. She added: “We know that in order to have enough properties for everybody and our most vulnerable, we are going to need to build a serious amount of properties, but we also know it takes so long to do that. We’ve got a problem now, not in three or four years.

“It should have been happening years ago. In order to address that, the only short-term solution is to purchase properties and refurbish properties, so we are tackling it from all angles. I’m the first one to say it is very frustrating. We are all aware of the issues. We are trying to get them from issues to solutions. It takes time. I do think we’re making headway in terms of getting rid of some of that red tape.”

The housing strategy sets out a vision for people in Conwy for residents to have access to “affordable, appropriate, and good quality accommodation”, whilst increasing the supply of affordable housing. The report states Conwy has claimed £41,968,293 in the last four years in social housing grants to develop affordable housing, which has helped to increase the supply by 456 units.

Conwy is also developing its land and assets for affordable housing – as well as targeting grant funding to bring empty properties back into use as affordable housing. Cabinet voted to approve the strategy report, and the findings will be shared with key stakeholders.

References

^{^} Conwy (www.dailypost.co.uk)
^{^} Old Colwyn (www.dailypost.co.uk)
^{^} Conwy (www.dailypost.co.uk)
^{^} The North Wales village named the best holiday destination in the UK (www.dailypost.co.uk)
^{^} the comments below. (www.dailypost.co.uk)