Today the Welsh Conservatives are setting out their three-point plan to tackle the housing crisis in Wales.
Labour are failing to build half of the houses Wales needs each year. Welsh Conservative housing spokesperson Janet Finch-Saunders MS has said that, thanks to Labour, “the home ownership dream is becoming more and more distant for too many people in Wales.”
The Welsh Conservative plan focuses on bringing empty properties back into use, while also turbocharging planning and supporting developers to meet local housing needs.
“Labour in Wales are letting down our communities by standing by while their housing crisis robs so many families of the chance to own a home.
“Because Labour are failing to build half of the homes Wales needs, the home ownership dream is becoming more and more distant for too many people in Wales.
“The Welsh Conservatives will turbocharge planning, support developers and bring empty properties back into use to make the dream of owning a home a reality once again in Wales.”
The motion which will be debated on Wednesday reads:
To propose that the Senedd:
1. Regrets that despite Wales needing at least 12,000 new homes every year, over the last decade the Welsh Government has barely built half that number.
2. Recognises figures released from the Office for National Statistics in 2023 that there are 103,000 truly vacant unoccupied dwellings in Wales.
3. Calls on the Welsh Government to:
a) establish a dedicated taskforce of planners to tackle the backlog in the slowest performing councils, and create a planning apprentice for every council;
b) support small developers in Wales to build homes on land owned by the Welsh Government and local councils, with a focus on meeting local housing needs; and
c) turn Wales’s empty properties back into homes.
