Welsh Labour Assembly Member, Lesley Griffiths believes the launch of a new scheme to help landlords convert disused houses into homes can help combat homelessness.
The Welsh Government this week launched a £5million scheme which provides recyclable loans to landlords and owners across Wales and the Wrexham AM believes the additional credit scheme will help prevent homelessness from occurring.
Wales has around 22,000 empty private sector properties. The ‘Houses to Homes’ Recyclable Loans Fund aims to help landlords to bring these back to habitable standards, increasing housing supply without the need to build new homes. This could help provide accommodation for the 1,845 households which were accepted as homeless in the Welsh Governments latest figures.
The scheme works by enabling Local Authorities to offer interest free loans to landlords to renovate empty run-down residential properties and return them to use as homes for sale or rent. Loans will be repaid over a fixed period, making the money available for further loans to turn more empty houses into homes. Loans are available up to £25,000 per unit, to a maximum of £150,000 loan per applicant.
All local authorities in Wales can access the scheme. The scheme will be managed by a lead authority in each of the six identified regions.
Commenting on the launch, Lesley Griffiths said:
“Constituents come to see me about a range of issues but housing supply is never far from the top of the caseload.
“In Wales, there are more than ten times the number of empty properties than there are homeless families. This gives you some idea of the impact turning these properties back into habitable homes could have.
“The ‘Houses to Homes’ initiative is just the type of creative, low cost solution Wales needs to look to address this situation. This could release thousands of homes onto the market which could help to plug the housing gap, provide affordable housing and prevent homelessness occurring in the first place.
“As this scheme operates as a low cost loan, it also comes at minimal cost to the Welsh Government, and when you take into account the social problems which it could help prevent – I believe this can save money long-term.
“In addition, this can provide more homes without the need to build on ‘greenfield’ sites – this really is win-win.”
