What a Plaid Cymru-led Wales means for property
With manifesto promises to build at least 20,000 social homes by 2030 and to reform the planning system, here’s what the industry needs to know about the party’s agenda and how it will impact projects in Flintshire, Wrexham, Denbighshire, Anglesey, and Gwynedd.
Why it matters
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth is expecting to become the First Minister later today, forming a minority government with the Green Party.
Plaid Cymru won 43 seats on Thursday’s Welsh Parliament elections, including 11 in North Wales. The Green Party claimed two, with Green leader Anthony Slaughter pledging his support for ap Iorweth.
Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds, the only member of her party in the Senedd, is expected to abstain as are the nine remaining Labour members of the Senedd – one of whom is representing the Fflint Wrecsam constituency.
The second largest party in Wales is Reform, which has 34 seats. Of these, nine were from North Wales constituencies.
Manifesto promises
Deliver at least 20,000 social homes by 2030
Create Unnos, a “national development body and social housing enabler”
- Would work with local authorities and affordable housing providers
- Would be able to act as a broker to find, acquire, and de-risk sites for social housing
- Would help with planning applications and project management
- Would aid local authorities and registered providers in finding funding for these projects
- Would support procurement process to help bring in local businesses
- Would encourage innovation within social housing such as MMC
Review, alongside local authorities, existing measures regarding second homes and holiday lets to see what works and what more needs to be done
Further develop services that adapt and improve homes to they are suitable for older people who want to live independently
Speed up remediation work on buildings with fire safety defects, including cladding deemed to be unsafe
Reform strategic planning
- “Take a community-centred approach that protects and strengthens local leadership in setting planning priorities”
- Craft a new national development framework, regional map, and plan for implementation
- Change the consultation process around local development plans to give communities more power over their development – this appears to be a response to the very dramatic saga around Wrexham’s now-quashed local development plan
- Make it easier to ament local plans to reflect changes in housing needs
- Cut red tape around planning to provide guarantees on consenting timelines
- Extend permitted development rights to include community-led housing projects, energy works, and small-scale renewable schemes
- Review uses and process of Section 106 agreements
- Implement the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities’ recommendations on town and country planning
Strengthen oversight and enforcement against developers and freeholders who do not meet fire safety remediation deadlines
Conduct regular housing surveys to get a sense of the housing need in the country
Develop a new retrofit programme
- Change energy efficiency standards so they are “practical and achievable”
- Create one-stop-shop hubs that can provide advice, guidance, and support on home improvements and financing options
- Create a quality control process that keeps track of work being done to ensure it meets standards as well as requiring an independent assessment of the work prior to payment
- Explore creating permitted development rights for heat pumps and household renewables
Encourage Welsh pension funds to invest in housebuilding
Explore developing financial products through the Development Bank of Wales and the government’s borrowing powers to encourage housebuilding
