Written question WQ83685

This Government is committed to providing more social housing across the whole of Wales, as signalled by our Programme for Government commitment to deliver 20,000 new low-carbon homes for rent in the social sector.

We are investing a record £250m through our Social Housing Grant for 2021/22. This is almost double our budget for last year. The North Wales region has been allocated £50.4m, over double the £24.9m North Wales received in 2020/21, contributing towards the delivery of around 1000 much needed homes.

From our central estimates of housing need, we know that for North Wales specifically, 1,200 additional housing units are required annually for the first 5-year period (2019/20-2023/24). Forty-seven per cent of this estimated need is for market housing and fifty-three per cent for affordable housing (intermediate rent or social).

Whilst our 20,000 homes target is focussed on social housing, it is important that those who wish to buy their own homes are able to do so. We have a number of schemes designed to increase home ownership in Wales including HomeBuy– Wales, Help to Buy–Wales and the Self Build–Wales schemes. It is also important that there are good quality private rented sector properties available, and we are committed to rolling out our National Leasing Scheme to increase the availability of affordable private rented sector homes.