Five steps to increase the number of affordable housing for people in Wales, make improvements for tenants and local communities, reduce bureaucracy and encourage innovation have been announced by the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government today.
The package of measures has been announced a month after a major report - The Essex Report on affordable housing - was published and are the first changes which are to be made to deliver some of its key recommendations. The Essex Report into Affordable Housing in Wales, chaired by former Labour Minister Sue Essex, was commissioned by the Assembly Government in October 2007 to look at how the Assembly Government could deliver one of its commitments to make at least 6,500 extra affordable homes available.
The first five steps are:
- Giving registered social landlords - mainly housing associations - more flexibility to make greater use of their assets to borrow more money to fund building more homes, and provide additional facilities for communities.
- Cutting red tape - make the application process more streamlined for housing associations to seek permission to borrow money to invest in new property
- Encouraging housing associations to provide new homes to higher standards that will reduce carbon emissions and increasing energy efficiency which will help cut household fuel bills.
- Making it easier for housing associations to apply for Physical Adaptation Grants , and prevent backlogs in carrying out adaptations to the homes of some of our more vulnerable tenants.
- Giving housing associations greater freedom when working with Local Authorities to purchase existing properties.
The Assembly Government has said that other recommendations in the Essex Report will need further work and discussion with its partners in the housing sector in Wales in the coming months.
