Mark Isherwood
Shadow Housing Minister Mark Isherwood AM has called on the Welsh Government to apologise for the housing crisis it has created in Wales.
Questioning the Finance Minister on the overall budget allocation to the Housing and Regeneration portfolio in the Assembly, Mr Isherwood criticised Labour’s housing cuts since devolution and said Ministers should join Welsh Conservatives in pledging to give housing a greater priority in future budgets.
He said:
“Given that Labour’s housing spokesperson in the London Assembly has said that Labour should apologise because Margaret Thatcher’s Government built more council and housing association homes in a single year than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did in 13 years, will the Welsh Government apologise for cutting by almost 75% the supply of new homes for social rent in Wales, for cutting the number of units for social rent in Wales by almost 30,000, for presiding, last year, over a 12% cut in the number of new homes registered as it increased by 28% across the UK, and join the Welsh Conservatives in pledging to give housing a greater priority in future budgets, recognising the negative impact on wellbeing, health and education of not doing so?”
The Minister Jane Hutt said the additional allocation included in the second supplementary budget means that the allocation to housing and regeneration has increased by 8.2% this year.
Mr Isherwood added:
“Far from cutting funding for new housing, we would prioritise this. It is Labour Welsh Government which slashed social housing budgets as devolved budgets doubled and which still fails to prioritise housing as a key service in Wales.”
