Plaid Cymru’s manifesto pledges to expand social housing

A spokesperson for Shelter Cymru said in response that “commitments to championing an increased supply of social homes are good to see and we’d urge all political parties, at all levels, to work together on tackling the barriers to achieving this”.

Plaid Cymru said it would “look to end homelessness” through legislation based on a white paper published last autumn, which proposed ending priority need tests and increasing the definition of “threatened with homelessness” from 56 days to six months.

Matt Dicks, national director at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Cymru, said: “We welcome Plaid Cymru’s focus on building more homes in Wales together with a focus on enshrining the right to adequate housing into legislation.”

CIH Cymru, along with charities Tai Pawb and Shelter Cymru, have led the call to incorporate the right to housing into Welsh law through their Back the Bill coalition.

“Enshrining the right will not only ensure individuals can access a safe, suitable and affordable home but will also, according to our own independent cost-benefit analysis from Alma Economics, generate £2.30 for every £1 spent,” Mr Dicks said.

The Welsh nationalist party also committed to retaining the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) at the 30th percentile of market rents.

LHA is the housing benefit element of Universal Credit paid to people renting privately and is intended to cover the cheapest 30% of housing. The rates were uplifted in April.

Plaid Cymru called for the broad market rental area mechanism – which determines the LHA rate in a given area – to be devolved to Wales.

Shelter Cymru said it felt there was “scope to go further than just maintaining rates at the 30th percentile” and that it was “vital this reflects the true cost of renting in Wales following sustained increases in rental costs over recent years”.

“In 2010, these rates were set to cover lowest 50% of rents and we support a restoration to this level,” a spokesperson added.

In a speech to launch the manifesto in Cardiff, Rhun ap Iorwerth, leader of Plaid Cymru, said his party would seek to ditch the Barnett formula, which is used to calculate how much money each of the devolved governments receive.

He said: “The common thread which runs through this manifesto is fairness. Firstly, fair funding for Wales. Plaid Cymru is the only party advocating for the abolition of the Barnett formula, which has seen Wales lose out to the tune of billions of pounds now over the years.

“Scrapping it in favour of a needs-based model is essential if we’re to be able to adequately fund our public services and should be the bare minimum of what the next government offers Wales.”

Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, also welcomed Plaid Cymru’s emphasis on affordable homes and ending homelessness.

“Changes like long-term investment in Local Housing Allowances so it covers the true cost of rents, scrapping the benefit cap and ending no recourse to public funds will ensure that many more people in Wales, and across Britain, will have a safe place to call home,” he said.

The manifesto comes hot on the heels of the pledges made by all the parties in England this week. Labour promised to prioritise and increase protections on newly built social rented homes, as well as pledged more devolution to combined authorities and steps to improve building safety.