Extra funding for social housing included in next year’s budget proposals
CARDIFF Council has pledged to build 4,000 new council homes by 203t – but only 2,800 of those will be affordable housing, with the other 1,200 to be sold on the private market.
The new target will be partly funded by a £419 million investment in social housing included in Cardiff Council’s 2022/23 budget proposals, which were announced on Friday.
“We are building on what we have delivered already, and we now want to expand the scale and pace of our house-building programme,” said Dave Jacques, Cardiff council operational manager.
He stressed that the houses being built for sale would be priced “affordably,” to allow them to be sold to members of the communities in which they were built.
The announcement was criticised by housing campaigners.
“House prices in Cardiff have grown twice as fast as wages in the last 15 years,” said Sam Coates, communications officer for ACORN Cardiff, a community organisation campaigning for more affordable homes in the city.
“It’s difficult to overstate the city’s housing crisis. The council is keen to promote their plans for new social housing, but too often new developments are too small in scale, or rely on much larger private sector developments.
“Building 2,800 council homes over 10 years may just stem the growth of the list of families waiting to be housed. There will still be many thousands of households living in crowded, unsuitable or unsafe conditions.”
As of last December, there were 8,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in Cardiff, with an extra 400 applying per month.
The council has estimated that the city will need to build between 19,000 and 30,500 new homes over the next 15 years to house its growing population.
In a scrutiny meeting on Monday, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities Lynda Thorne acknowledged that the pandemic and issues around Brexit have had an impact on the council’s house-building programme.
She said the differences in salary between local government and the commercial housing market had made recruiting staff more difficult.
“I’m confident, however, that going forward we will meet this target,” she said. “Our planned objectives seek to address housing needs across the city, and also shows our commitment to moving towards zero carbon.”
The council also confirmed that all the new homes will be built without gas boilers to reduce emissions, and pledged to make its house-building operation as environmentally-friendly as possible.
Wales has some of the least energy-efficient homes in Europe, with old and inefficient houses leading to higher CO2 emissions as well as larger energy bills for residents.
Cardiff Council’s 2022/23 budget proposals will see council tax rise by 1.9% if they are approved by the majority of councillors in a vote on March 3.
The budget includes significant spending plans to tackle the cost of living crisis and help Cardiff recover from the pandemic, with schools, social services and youth centres all receiving extra investment.
“The council has been at the forefront of getting Cardiff back up and running as we’ve come through the pandemic,” said council leader Huw Thomas.
“We want to carry on with this work, creating and bringing much-needed jobs, improving educational attainment so our young people have better chances in life, and building new council homes so people can have affordable rents.
“It’s about protecting those most in need.”
