Council plans to buy 148 flats to ease housing pressure

Nation.Cymru staff

Cardiff Council plans to buy 148 flats across two developments as it faces a social housing waiting list of about 9,600 households.

The council’s cabinet will be asked on Thursday 19 November to approve the purchase of 136 flats on City Road and a further 12 in Gabalfa. Both purchases would be subject to the properties being vacant and the completion of legal checks.

The City Road development, completed in 2017, contains 134 studios and two two-bedroom flats. It also has communal areas, laundry facilities and a secure courtyard.

The council would use the development as managed permanent accommodation. It says the purchase could help prevent homelessness by giving more households access to affordable homes before they need temporary accommodation.

The Gabalfa development comprises six one-bedroom and six two-bedroom flats across two blocks. They would be let as permanent general-needs council housing.

The purchases are part of the council’s effort to bring more homes into use quickly alongside its programme to deliver more than 4,000 new council homes.

Cllr Lynda Thorne, cabinet member for housing and communities, said: “There isn’t one single solution to the housing emergency. We need to build new homes, but we also need to seize opportunities to acquire good-quality existing accommodation when they arise.”

The council says about 1,400 social homes become available to let each year. A third of households on the waiting list are classed as overcrowded, while just 3% of the council’s existing social homes have four or more bedrooms.

At the same meeting, cabinet members will consider changes to how social housing is allocated following a consultation that drew almost 3,000 responses.

The proposals would give greater priority to households where overcrowding is significantly worsening serious health, disability or welfare needs. Households with complex needs could also move up the waiting list if they face homelessness and attempts to prevent it have failed.

Other proposed changes would allow a suitable downstairs living room to be counted as a bedroom when assessing overcrowding and raise the age at which two household members of the same sex are expected to share a bedroom from 16 to 18.