£175m budget boost for housing in Wales

This brings the total invested by the Welsh Government in building new homes to £2bn over this Assembly term.

Housing Minister, Julie James said:

“Housing is a key priority for the Welsh Government, and this is reflected in our draft budget for 2020-21.

“We want everyone to live in a home that meets their needs and supports a healthy, successful and prosperous life. Good-quality homes are the bedrock of good communities and form the basis for individuals and families to flourish in all aspects of their lives.

“I’m delighted we are investing an additional £175m in housing schemes from April, taking total investment in new housing to £400m.

“This will help ensure we build more of the social and affordable homes that people need across Wales.”

Providing more social housing is a top priority for the Welsh Government and the new injection of capital funding for housing in the budget this financial year includes an extra £48m for the social housing grant programme, taking total investment in new social housing to £223.3m.

The Welsh Government’s draft budget allocates:

• £50m to fund housing loans - assisting Registered Social Landlords with development plans for new social housing and to help start to decarbonise existing homes;
• £35m to fund Help to Buy Wales - helping more people to access home ownership.
• £5m of capital funding will be invested in the land release fund, which is focused on developing public land for use for social housing;
• £10m to support Welsh modern methods of construction suppliers.

In addition, extra funding will also be targeted towards building more low-carbon homes, helping to respond to the climate emergency, as part of a £140m package to ensure a greener Wales.

Additional capital funding of £25m will extend the Innovative Housing Programme, responding to emerging evidence that modular and other modern methods of home construction can successfully deliver near zero-carbon homes. Around 450 extra climate-friendly social homes will be built across Wales as a result.

The Innovative Housing Programme supports those building affordable and market housing to develop new models of house building, building on the success seen over the last two years, and reflects the Welsh Government’s sustained commitment to supporting real change.

Between 2016 and 2021, the Welsh Government will have invested £2bn in housing, recognising the importance of good, quality housing to support thriving communities. This will help deliver the Welsh Government’s commitment to deliver 20,000 new affordable homes across Wales by 2021.