Fewer homes built than planned as county falls short of development target

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

Housebuilding in a west Wales county happened at a rate of almost one a day in 2024-25, yet still remained well below a development plan’s target figure.

A Carmarthenshire council report said 362 properties were completed – 33 more than the previous year – but that the target set by its overarching local development plan (LDP) was 1,013 new homes per year.

Councils plan an average annual requirement for new homes to ensure an adequate supply.

Housing completions in Carmarthenshire over the last decade peaked at 710 in 2019-20 just before the Covid pandemic struck. They plummeted to 229 in 2022-23 and have crept upwards since.

A report before the council’s communities, homes and regeneration committee said reasons for the lower-than-planned completions “could only be speculated upon” but could include cost of living pressures, the number of available sites or the after-effects of the pandemic.

The contents of the lengthy LDP annual monitoring report were noted by councillors without any discussion. A new LDP will replace the current one, subject to Welsh ministerial approval.

Addressing the committee Cllr Carys Jones, cabinet member for rural affairs and planning policy, said additional planning guidelines had come into force in 2024-25 and that the ongoing implementation of the LDP was in general successful.

The committee report said progress was being made in many areas of the LDP but that “there are elements and components which are not delivering as intended”.

Another aspect of the housing equation is granting sufficient planning permissions to enable new homes in the first place. The council’s LDP sets out a target for planning consent for 1,405 homes a year. The figure for permissions reached 995 for large and small sites in 2021-22 but dropped sharply to 475 in 2024-25.

The LDP also sets targets for development at employment sites and monitors retail vacancies. The committee report said vacancy levels for “primary and secondary” retail units fell in Carmarthen town centre in 2024-25 and that there were also fewer empty primary retail units in Ammanford than the previous year.

However, it said more than 35% of Llanelli town centre’s primary retail units were empty – a higher figure than in 2023-24.

The report added that planning permission had been granted for a lot more renewable energy projects – overwhelmingly solar ones – than in the previous 12 months.