Mark Isherwood
Shadow Housing Minister Mark Isherwood AM is concerned that the Housing (Wales) Bill fails to address the causes of the housing supply crisis in Wales.
Mr Isherwood fears that the Bill may even exacerbate the many housing problems currently facing the country, such as overcrowding, homelessness and waiting lists.
Speaking about the Bill in the Assembly Chamber this week, he criticised the Welsh Government for not working with housing providers in putting it together and said too much of the new legislation focuses on “anti-business regulation for all landlords, hitting investment and supply, rather than targeted enforcement against bad and criminal landlords and support for the worst-affected tenants”.
He said: “I think that my 21 years in the building society sector and my 12 years in the Housing Association sector taught me the most important lesson, that if Government or any other agency is seeking to deliver programmes or legislation, the most important thing is that the sector should work together with the proposer of the legislation. In my experience, that is exactly what happened before devolution in Wales, where Tai Cymru would come to people like me, and colleagues across the sector, and agree ways of making the proposal into something that could work, so that all parties could then implement it together. Regrettably, this Bill failed to achieve that.
“Much of the Bill, and its beginning, focuses on regulation and licensing. Suffice it to say that much of the sector, particularly those parts of the sector that invest or decide to invest in supply, state that it will not work; it will actually have the reverse impact and will disincentive investment.
“This in turn will impact, sadly and tragically, on a key element of this in terms of tackling homelessness, which is increasing the supply of private rented sector housing to those who are homeless, to those who are on waiting lists and those who need that extra support.”
Mr Isherwood added: “Issues such as waiting lists, overcrowding, homelessness, intentional homelessness and priority groups for housing are above all symptoms of the housing supply crisis which this Bill does nothing to address and may even further exacerbate.
“There is a danger that in these circumstances, a statutory requirement to prevent homelessness will increase hidden homelessness, as it did when councils in Wales were told to introduce preventative measures after homelessness had increased massively up to 2004.”
