Mark Hand is Director of Wales, Northern Ireland, and Planning Aid England at the RTPI
The recently published Affordable Housing Taskforce report has made recommendations for speeding up the delivery of urgently needed affordable homes in Wales.
Although the focus of the Taskforce was on achieving the Welsh Government’s target of 20,000 low carbon homes for social rent by the end of its term in May 2026, many of the recommendations can support delivery of all homes and some might be applicable beyond Wales.
Chaired by Lee Waters MS, the Taskforce comprised a local authority Chief Planning Officer, representatives from affordable housing providers, developers, the Design Commission for Wales, the Welsh Local Government Association’s political lead on housing and RTPI Cymru. We were supported by guest experts and civil servants from planning, regeneration and housing.
It was a fantastic team effort with all kinds of ideas were bounced around and constructively challenged.
Context
So what’s the problem we’re trying to fix?
With 140,000 people in Wales on a waiting list for a home they can afford and 3,000 children currently living in B&B accommodation, we're in a housing emergency.
This crisis is not just severely impacting those families waiting for a suitable home. Rapidly rising costs of providing temporary accommodation are one of the three big bills affecting council budgets (alongside social care and school transport), resulting in cuts to other services, affecting planning practitioners, developers and communities.
While housing need increases, delivery of both affordable and market homes has slowed. Data from Welsh Government annual affordable housing statistical releases shows that construction of affordable homes has fallen from 3,045 in 2020/21 to 2,278 in 2021/22, recovering somewhat in 2022/23 (2,829 new builds). But assuming a 2.5 person household, even at the 2020/21 build rate, it will take us 18 years to house the current waiting list. We’d all agree that’s not good enough.
A trigger for action
In September 2024, Audit Wales published its report on the delivery of affordable housing in Wales. Central to the report is monitoring progress against the 20,000 low carbon social rent homes target by May 2026. It found that, although the Welsh Government’s pipeline suggests 19,913 homes will be delivered by May 2026, achieving this will require between £580m and £740m additional investment. Without this additional funding, Audit Wales estimated that between 15,860 and 16,670 homes will be delivered against the target.
Of note, Audit Wales recognised that this reduction in delivery coincides with the introduction of sustainable drainage (SuDS) requirements, the phosphate issue affecting five Special Area of Conservation (SAC) rivers in Wales, land supply issues linked to the age of many adopted Local Development Plans, and capacity in the planning system.
Highlights from the Taskforce report
The recommendations broadly split into two areas: finance and planning.
The finance recommendations include streamlining grant processes, reviewing bonds, and prioritising the requirements placed on Housing Associations: is it more homes, decarbonisation or compliance with electrical standards? Current funding and capacity cannot deliver all three.
The planning highlights for me are:
🏠 - a welcome explicit recognition of the role of major housebuilders in delivering affordable homes (strictly defined in Wales). Although not perfect, and recognising that the market alone cannot deliver what is needed, we need to embrace and improve the private sector’s role rather than ignore (or worse still, stifle) it. Solving this housing crisis needs everyone to maximise their contribution;
🔎- since the abolition of Technical Advice Note 1 there is no mechanism for the development of a land supply chain. The report notes the Housing Roundtable recommendation for a contingency mechanism if LDPs are delayed or not delivering as something that merits further consideration This could include a requirement for a minimum proportion of affordable homes. The Housing Roundtable was hosted by Hugh James having been jointly arranged by Emma Poole, Alex Madden, Mark Harris HBF and RTPI Cymru. It was chaired by Nick Bennett and brought together public and private sector planners, developers, affordable housing providers and other sector experts. The Roundtable recommendations fed into the Taskforce.
RTPI Cymru will continue to work with stakeholders to help shape an appropriate way of measuring delivery and intervening when the Plan-led system isn’t delivering as it must;
✂️- recognition that public sector austerity cuts have affected the ability of LPAs and consultees to respond to demands;
⏭️ - whole organisation leadership is crucial. Affordable housing projects should be prioritised by all parties (this is more than just the planners and includes political leadership). A whole Authority project management approach should be applied to affordable housing proposals;
🗺 - land allocated in LDPs must have a presumption in favour of development rather than have this questioned at each stage of the planning process:
“Sponsors of land for development not only have to go through a lengthy process to get a site allocated the Local Development Plan, but often face a further lengthy test to achieve outline planning permission, and then full planning permission. An LDP allocation should mean there is no further debate about the principle of residential development and the focus should shift to detailed proposals. However, the debate at planning stage can often be focused on re-running an argument already settled at LDP stage.
As well as representing significant cost and time investment, the process consumes significant resources from local planning authorities. In a Housing Emergency this is at best sub-optimal, at worst indefensible.”
🚦- a proposal to raise the definition of 'major development' from 10 to 50 dwellings (noting this is different to the current WG consultation that suggests 25 dwellings - something you might want to consider in your consultation responses);
📋 - a need for template S106 agreements with standardised key clauses to quicken this part of the process;
🧮 - support for the existing work on a Wales-wide viability methodology;
🏚 - more resource, perhaps on a regional footprint, to tackle the 22,000 empty homes in Wales;
📍- greater use of public sector land to deliver affordable homes, with a register of unused land to inform strategic planning;
🏞️ - recognising that the SuDS Approval Body process remains relatively new and continues to evolve, and the Welsh Government and WLGA should provide a review of best practice and develop a list of ten “Dos and Don’ts” for the SAB application process.
What’s next?
Although the focus of the discussions is on speeding up processes, the Taskforce was keen to remember the desired outcome: the creation of quality homes and places. As planners, we must keep the focus on making the planning system work better rather than ways of bypassing the system.
Key to making the planning system work better is a properly resourced system. RTPI Cymru has been commissioned by the Welsh Government to produce evidenced research on public sector capacity and skills, looking at Local Planning Authorities, Planning & Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Welsh Government’s planning team. This report will be published in the Summer.
Aligned with this, the Welsh Government recently consulted on increasing planning application fees in Wales with a view to achieving cost recovery over the next few years. Our members fully supported the principle, provided that the increased fees result in improvements. If these changes are introduced, Councils and National Park Authorities have a once in a lifetime opportunity to meaningfully invest in an improved planning service.
RTPI Cymru continues to argue unapologetically that this additional fee income must be reinvested in planning services in order to improve service delivery and achieve the outcomes our communities need: homes, jobs, green spaces and infrastructure. I urge public sector leaders (Chief Execs, Chief Planners and politicians) to recognise the importance of reinvesting the additional income in better planning services to deliver a strengthened and resilient planning system. In doing so, you’ll be investing in the solutions to the housing crisis and budget challenges, rather than chipping away at the expensive symptoms
