Mr. Black argued that this insistence on changes is contrary to the UK coalition agreement which guarantees the passage of this order unchanged.

The Housing LCO is a key piece of legislation seeking to transfer powers to the Welsh Government that will enable them to legislate to suspend the right to buy in areas of high demand, reduce Council tax bills for serving members of the armed forces, make changes to the regulatory regime for housing associations and create a single set of tenancy conditions for those renting their homes from Councils and housing associations. It also contains powers to legislate so as to insist on provision for gypsies and travellers.

Mr. Jones has now said that before the Government is prepared to allow this Order to proceed he wants it amended so that it prevents the Assembly abolishing the right to buy at all and limits any suspension to ten years.

Commenting on the changes Mr. Black said: “In themselves these changes do not cause problems in the short term as there was never any intention to abolish the right to buy and any suspension would be for a much shorter period than ten years. However, the principle here is that the UK Government should not be limiting the Welsh Government’s freedom for manoeuvre in this way in contravention of the agreement in the UK coalition document.

“I am very disappointed that as one of his first acts the Under-Secretary of State should break the agreement his party had with the Liberal Democrats in this way and without any consultation with us.”

Related posts:

1. Tories mislead on housing order
2. Welsh Liberal Democrat reshuffle
3. Welsh Liberal Democrat AM calls for airlines to allow travellers to ‘Breathe Easy’

The behaviour of the Welsh Conservatives on this matter has been wholly disreputable. They have indulged in scaremongering, misleading the public as to the powers that would be made available to Welsh Ministers if the LCO is approved by Westminster.

The Tories have been putting it about that “the LCO in its present form could potentially give the Welsh Assembly Government the right to impose the location of Gypsy and traveller sites upon local communities contrary to the wishes of local authorities.” That is not supported by the facts.

The Conservatives say that they believe such decisions should be taken locally and I agree with them. There is nothing in the powers being given to the Assembly by this Order that would prevent that happening. What is being sought is the power to compel local planning authorities to make an assessment as to need and to make provision in their overall plan. Where sites are located and the process for approving them remains entirely with the planning authority and cannot be dictated to by the Welsh Government.

Indeed as planning is a quasi-judicial process I would argue that any attempt to impose planning permission by statute would prove to be sub-judice and subject to challenge in the courts. No government would seek to attempt such a thing.

The Tories are playing politics with this issue in the hope of winning a few votes. In doing so they are preventing a vital piece of legislation reaching the statute book. Their reasons for playing games with people’s homes in this way appear to be clouded in misunderstanding and prejudice. I regret very much that they feel the need to add to that by misleading people as to the way that these powers can and will be used.

Related posts:

1. Welsh Liberal Democrat criticises UK Government interference on housing order
2. Tories vote for more powers and then scupper power attempt
3. Time to put our own house in order

Then, I’ll just attack you and steal the six sandwiches. That isn’t part of the analogy, that’s just because I like sandwiches.

So, as you can clearly see I’m talking about housing policy in Wales.

The One Wales agreement is very clear on housing. It says, in no uncertain terms that the Government will “ensure that the supply of affordable housing increases by at least 6,500 over the next four years”. I don’t think there is any room for manoeuvre within this. It has to mean that when the Government leaves office, there will be 6,500 more affordable homes than when it came in.

But pinning the Plaid Deputy Housing Minister, Jocelyn Davies AM, down on this has been difficult. She hasn’t confirmed or denied that this target means ‘6,500 more’ or ‘just build 6,500’.

But in a written answer to Peter Black, our Shadow Housing Minister, she has now confirmed that the very clear One Wales Government commitment doesn’t actually mean what we’d all thought it meant. What it instead means is that they will simply ‘build 6,500’ affordable homes, rather than increase supply.

In reality, this has one clear effect. The problem with affordable homes is that they are not just created, but also sometimes sold. While we have 92,000 households on housing waiting lists for social homes, properties are still being sold under the Right to Buy. The Minister has now confirmed that she will not be counting properties sold in this way, or demolished, in her figures.

The most recent figures from the Government suggest that they are well on course with their target, having achieved 4,235 of the properties required for their 6,500 target and that there are many more on the way in the next year. This would be great if this figure was actually in line with their promise.

But when you bear in mind that 1,900 affordable homes have either been sold under right to buy/acquire or demolished since the Government came to power, you realise that the ‘supply’ of affordable housing has only increased by 2,335. This means the Government has only achieved 1/3 of the target, with only a year to go.

There is frankly no hope of this target being met now. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have spent the last two years warning of this and suggesting ways in which the target may be met. But with only a year to go, and with such a mountain to climb, there isn’t much hope.

Had the original Housing LCO been passed, it may have been possible. But even with the new version due to pass today, it will be too late for these additional powers to have much impact by the 2011 election.

But what will be interesting is watching Plaid deal with this. We know what was meant by their commitment, they know what was meant by their commitment. Is that going to stop them claiming success and shouting it as a massive achievement?

No.

We will not have 6,500 new affordable homes when they leave office, nor will we have ten sandwiches. But Plaid will claim success, as the Minister is already doing, despite the fact they are already well aware of their failure.

Plaid will simply lie their way out of this hole. And that is pretty disgraceful.

Related posts:

1. Minister’s figures hide real story on affordable housing
2. Plaid Cymru and Labour failing on affordable housing targets
3. Labour and Plaid resort to spin on housing targets

Because of the cock-up over the first Housing LCO that saw it rejected by a joint Houses of Parliament Constitutional Committee, the Welsh Government have tried again with a more wide-ranging attempt at drawing down powers on affordable housing. But, because it has been left so late it is unlikely to get through scrutiny by the ten Whitehall departments before a General Election is called.

This means that it will only get on the statute book if the Government can get all party support to push it through in what is known as the wash-up. However, as the Tories are opposing the right to buy provisions in the LCO it is unlikely to survive even that process.

In many ways this is bizarre. Only a week ago the Tories unanimously supported a referendum on full law-making powers for the Assembly and said they would vote yes. A successful referendum would give us the precise powers that are sought under this LCO. For now though they see fit to play games and deny the Assembly the right to make its own mind up on the issue.

There could though be consequences. Contained in this LCO is a provision that will give the Welsh Government the power to change the way that Council Tax discounts are set. This will enable WAG to give Councils the ability to increase charges on long-term empty homes. It also enables them to reduce Council Tax by half for serving members of the armed forces for whom their main home has become a secondary residence.

Do the Tories really want to be responsible for denying servicemen equality with England on Council Tax charges by vetoing this Legislative Competence Order?

Related posts:

1. The power to vote ‘no’
2. The miracle of the Assembly’s law-making powers
3. Tories mislead on housing order

The English Liberal Democrats have recently announced a policy that will see £1 billion invested in grants to put empty properties back into use as affordable homes within the social sector. The Westminster Government has announced that £1 million will be given to 17 councils in Britain to invest in bringing empty properties back into use.

The grants proposed by the Liberal Democrats would be given to owners of long term empty properties to renovate their property and bring it back into use. In exchange the owner would have to let the property be used as social housing for a minimum of ten years. There are currently over 92,000 households on social housing waiting lists within Wales and an estimated 26,000 empty private sector properties.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have also proposed allowing councils in Wales to charge additional council tax on empty properties. This would act as an additional payment to compensate the community for the blight caused by a long-term empty property as well as an incentive for the owner to bring the home back into use. The Welsh Assembly Government has included this proposal in the new Affordable Housing LCO.

Peter Black said:

“The large number of empty residential properties around Wales is a massive social and environmental problem that needs to be tackled. With such a shortage of affordable homes it is madness to keep building more when we have a potential resource such as this that can be brought back into use.

“One of the weaknesses of the Welsh Government’s current housing policies is that they have no strategy to deal with empty properties. That must change and these proposals can prove an important part of that work.”

Related posts:

1. Welsh Liberal Democrats endorse 10:10 carbon campaign and call on Government to do same
2. Welsh Liberal Democrats call for action on wasteful spending by Assembly Government
3. Welsh Lib Dem MP calls for action on empty homes

He has called for more homes to be brought back into use, and put forward policies to use innovative funding schemes to encourage housing associations to use long-term empty properties.

He has also called for VAT on rebuild on repairs to be reduced to 5% to encourage developers to refurbish existing empty homes.

Mr Williams said: “Local authorities are not getting the assistance they need to ensure that children and families are not left in temporary accommodation.

“The Government should be doing everything they can to entice builders and developers to bring empty homes back into use.”

The Daily Post has the story here.

Related posts:

1. Targeting empty homes
2. Welsh Liberal Democrats call for empty home renovation grants
3. Peter Black calls on Welsh Government to create financial stability so Councils can better use their reserves

Mr. Rubinsohn told the paper that a two-tier housing market has emerged in Wales with first-time buyers cut adrift from the dream of home ownership. He said that even though the recession has forced prices down by 20%, a lack of finance means they can still not afford to climb onto the first rung of the property ladder.

But at the middle and top end of the market there is high demand for property, with estate agents reporting that buyers have turned to extreme measures to secure the home they want.

“Worryingly, there is an environment where there are those able to take a step on the property market and those who are cut adrift. Arguably, it would matter less if there was a better array of private lettings around.”

The paper adds that the National Association of Estate Agents has reported the number of buyers looking for their first home has halved in just six months and is now at its lowest level for a year. They say that in November, just 19% of buyers were first timers, the lowest recorded figure since December 2008, when it also stood at 19%.

NAEA president Gary Smith said: “Unfortunately, as first-time buyers often form the foundation of selling chains, there could be repercussions across the market.”

“I know a vibrant first-time buyers’ market is core to a strong housing market and lenders are keenly aware of that, but it’s a question of balance.”

All of this has implications for Welsh Goverment housing policy and in particular the need to ensure that the investment in affordable housing especially that for rent continues over the next few years. Unfortunately, because of money being brought forward from future years spending and despite other funds being obtained, the amount of Social Housing Grant available for new developments has started to dry up. Having missed its halfway target for increasing the number of affordable homes by 6,500, the Welsh Government looks like missing that target altogether by 2011.

There is still no satisfactory key workers scheme in place to help people in low paid employment get onto the housing ladder, whilst the private sector rental market remains unaffordable for many, largely due to housing benefit rules and the need for substantial up-front deposits.

The fact that there are still 26,000 empty private sector homes around Wales is a scandal, as is the fact that the Welsh Government still has no strategy to start tackling that problem. The approach of local Councils to the use of planning gain to acquire new affordable houses remains mixed and in any case is stymied by the current recession.

I have gone on record in the past to say that the Deputy Housing Minister is doing a reasonable job in the circumstances in which she finds herself, but unless she starts to adjust her policies soon so as to meet these challenges then the housing crisis in Wales will worsen over the next few years.

Related posts:

1. Minister’s figures hide real story on affordable housing
2. Labour and Plaid resort to spin on housing targets
3. Plaid Cymru and Labour failing on affordable housing targets

The One Wales agreement is quite clear that the government would not just build 6,500 homes, but would increase the supply of affordable homes by this amount. Only counting what has been built but ignoring what has been lost isn’t therefore a measure of their success in reaching this target.

A total of 976 local authority owned properties and 104 social landlord owned properties have been sold between 2007/08 and 2008/09. In 2007/08 67 social housing units were demolished. I do not have the demolition figures for 2008/09 but I suspect that they are comparable to the previous year.

This means that 1,147 affordable housing units have to be deducted from the Minister’s 3,252 figure, meaning that the supply of affordable housing has only increased by 2,105 units.

The One Wales Government is some way off achieving this target and on the current level of resources will not reach it by 2011.

Related posts:

1. Labour and Plaid resort to spin on housing targets
2. Minister’s figures hide real story on affordable housing
3. How Labour and Plaid Cymru are failing post 16 education

According to Shelter Cymru and the Chartered Institute of Housing, there are an estimated 26,407 empty properties in Wales at the moment. And this doesn’t include houses waiting for a new tenant or that have only just become empty, these are properties that have been empty for at least six months. Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, there are at least 91,000 households on the waiting list for social properties in Wales.  

Read that again. Yes, I said households, not individuals. 

But there are more than 91,000 people wanting a property. I’m not on a social housing waiting list, but I’d quite like a house. Do I have any hope of getting one in the next ten years? Not a pissing chance. Unless I can find a mortgage lender that will accept a deposit of £245 and a used X-Box, I think I can count myself out. But there are people who are more financially stable who would love a chance at home ownership. 

So, let’s review what we have learnt so far. We have lots of empty homes. We have lots of people who want to rent a house, and, we have lots of people who want to buy a house. In the words of a popular TV Meerkat (who runs the UK’s leading site for comparing Meerkats), Simples. 

Unfortunately not.  

It seems that the government can’t really think of a way to get from this situation, to getting the 26,000 properties back into use. A couple of weeks ago the Welsh Liberal Democrats used one of our minority party debates to suggest some ideas to the government. You’d think they’d be grateful and listen to our cunning plans, you’d be wrong.

What the Welsh Liberal Democrats have proposed is that councils should be given extra powers to raise the level of council tax on properties that have been empty for longer periods of time. For example, if you leave your property empty for two years, you’d pay 200% council tax, three years, 300% and so on. The affect of this would not only be to penalise landlords for leaving properties empty, and encourage them to get their properties back onto the market, but it would also compensate the community for the lose of the asset and give the council additional revenue. This could then be used to employ more empty property officers to try and force more landlords into putting their properties back onto the market. 

Currently, council’s have limited powers to deal with empty properties. They do have a legal recourse known as an ‘Empty Dwelling Management Order’ or EDMO, but these are complex, expensive and require a vast amount of work from the council. They are so complex that I simply cannot be arsed explaining how they work. Suffice to say they don’t actually work very well, seeing as there is yet to be a single one that has actually returned a property to the market (as far as I am aware anyway). 

Another power they have is that of a Compulsory Purchase Order, where they council essentially sells it on the owners behalf, whether the owner likes it or not. Given that these are a drastic step, it’s safe to assume this is not the answer in most cases. These are time consuming and complex as well, but not helped by the government.  

If a council wants to use a CPO, they have to go through the Planning Inspectorate. Which is strange, given there is absolutely no planning consideration for them to look at. The house is a house, when it is sold, it is sold as a house. Should the new owner want to make it something other than a house, they will have to apply for planning permission anyway. So why are councils having to waste time, resources and effort going through planning processes that aren’t needed? 

Even when they do get to the Welsh Assembly Government, they have a habit of sitting on them for a couple of months while they……well, I don’t know what they’re doing during that time. Probably nothing. Sometimes a public enquiry is required, but it takes the government a further six months to arrange that.  

All this government bureaucracy significantly slows down the process, making things more difficult for the council and keeping properties empty for longer.  

If the government is serious, as it claims, about tackling the problems with empty homes then they would give councils more powers to tackle the problem. But they have to allow councils to make better use of the powers that they already have by being a base of support rather than an active hindrance.  

Instead of slowing down processes, why doesn’t the government see what it can do to speed things up? Instead of limiting powers, what can they do to extend them? We’ve suggested an idea, and we know that the government likes to steal our ideas from time to time.  

Feel free to do it again.

Related posts:

1. Welsh Liberal Democrats call for empty home renovation grants
2. Coming home to roost
3. Targeting empty homes

They say that the latest estimates suggest that demand is outstripping supply in Wales by a much greater degree than previously thought and more investment is urgently needed.

The Assembly Government has pledged to deliver an extra 6,500 affordable homes by April 2011 and a spokesman said it is not shying away from that target, despite the recession.

But in a paper for Shelter Cymru, Alan Holmans, research fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, revised his original estimates of the number of new homes needed in Wales.

In 2003 he estimated that at least 8,600 new homes were needed each year. Of these, he said 2,500 needed to be affordable. He now believes at least 13,000 homes a year are required, an increase of a third.

Mr Puzey said he believed that translated to a rise in affordable home provision from 2,500 to 4,000 a year.

“Around 91,000 households are waiting for council or social housing in Wales, yet there are more than 26,000 privately-owned properties lying empty,” he said.

“Bringing even some of these back into use would have huge benefits financially, socially and environmentally.”

The call for an empty home strategy very much reflects the motion tabled by the Welsh Liberal Democrats for debate on Wednesday. However, the claim later on in the article by an anonymous Government spokesperson that WAG have already created 3,252 affordable homes, more than 50% of the target is simply not true. It seems that spin is being used by the Plaid Cymru Minister to deflect proper scrutiny.

The One Wales agreement is clear that the government would not just build 6,500 homes, but would increase the supply of affordable homes by this amount. Only counting what has been built but ignoring what has been lost isn’t a measure of her success in reaching her targets.

A total of 976 local authority owned properties and 104 social landlord owned properties have been sold between 2007/08 and 2008/09. In 2007/08 67 social housing units were demolished.

This means that 1,147 affordable housing units have to be deducted from the Ministers 3,252 figure, so that the supply of affordable housing has only increased by 2,105 units.

It does nobody any good for Ministers to rewrite the targets in One Wales just because they are failing to achieve them.

Related posts:

1. Plaid Cymru and Labour failing on affordable housing targets
2. Minister’s figures hide real story on affordable housing
3. Kirsty Williams on unambitious Labour-Plaid Cymru targets for Copenhagen Summit.