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Welsh housing minister vows to develop social rent policy that ‘works for Wales’
The Welsh housing minister has said she will create a social rent policy that reflects the key role played by social landlords in the nation, ahead of a sector-wide consultation to be carried out next summer.
Jayne Bryant, cabinet secretary for housing and local government, said she was “keen to deliver a rent policy that strikes a balance” between making sure social landlords remain financially viable and ensuring rents are affordable for tenants.
“But we need to develop a policy that works for Wales, a policy that fully captures the significant wide support and services social landlords provide to their tenants,” she told told delegates at the Community Housing Cymru (CHC) annual conference in Cardiff on Monday.
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Ms Bryant said the future social rent policy is “integral” to delivering on issues such as homelessness. She added that it has to reflect the role of social landlords “as key delivery partners in realising our ambitions to eradicate homelessness and deliver good-quality, energy-efficient homes”.
“I’m committed to ensuring that we take the time to get it right,” Ms Bryant said.
A full consultation on social rent policy will be conducted in summer 2025.
In May, former Welsh housing minister Julie James announced that social landlords would be able to set their own rent increases for 2025-26, extending the Welsh government’s rent and service charge standard for an extra year to the end of March 2026.
Ms Bryant also gave an update on legal action over whether Welsh housing associations will be required to repay rent to tenants who were not given an electrical condition report for their home, though she could not comment in detail because litigation is ongoing.
The High Court in Cardiff recently concluded that four housing associations had made their homes unfit for human habitation by not providing the reports, meaning that tenants are entitled to withhold their rent.
“I do recognise that this is a matter of very real concern for the sector, and I want to reiterate my absolute commitment to working closely with you to ensure a fair, proportionate and pragmatic resolution to the matter,” Ms Bryant said.
“My officials continue to be actively engaged with the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions], auditors and lenders to protect the interests of both tenants and social landlords.”
Her speech at the CHC conference came just one day before the publication of a new Senedd Committee report that called for the creation of a national development corporation to speed up housebuilding by buying land and planning housing across Wales.
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