Thousands of affordable homes needed in the Vale over the coming years

Ted Peskett Local Democracy Reporter

Thousands of affordable homes will be needed in the Vale of Glamorgan over the coming years, according to an assessment of housing need.

A report published by Vale of Glamorgan Council states that a local housing market assessment identifies a shortfall of 1,075 affordable homes each year over the next five years in the area.

The report also contains data showing the gulf in current housing need between Barry and the other areas of the Vale.

A table comparing supply and need for housing in each area of the county demonstrates that the gap in council housing for one bedroom homes in Barry (222) accounts for about 56% of the total gap in that category for the whole of the Vale.

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s head of housing and building services, Mike Ingram, said: “There is a huge gap and mismatch between supply and demand in the Vale of Glamorgan and clearly the priority of the council is to try and bridge as far as possible.”

The two main ways that housing is delivered in Vale of Glamorgan is through Welsh Government funding and requirements placed on house builders when they are given planning permission for new developments.

Vale of Glamorgan Council saw its social housing grant allocation from the Welsh Government double to just under £10m last year and because of delays to building projects elsewhere in Wales, the local authority also benefited from an additional £7m in 2023/24.

However, demand is still outstripping supply.

Mr Ingram said: “Clearly, there isn’t enough land, there isn’t enough development to actually deliver that scale of building, to deliver 1,000 affordable homes per year over the next five years.

“It does however give us an indication in terms of our policy making in terms of what priority we should be affording to affordable housing in either our planning policies or our local housing strategy… and the council’s own housebuilding programmes and plans.”

The council has put together a prospectus to set out which areas should be prioratised for council housing and what type of homes it should build there.

Data in the council’s report on housing need also shows that in Barry, the gaps for two bedroom council homes (61) and four bedroom council homes (15) is the biggest anywhere else in the Vale.

The total gaps for those categories across the Vale are 133 and 27 respectively.

The greatest need for three bedroom council homes is in Penarth/Llandough, where the gap is 14.

The total gap for three bedroom council homes across the Vale is 23.

Penarth/Llandough has the second biggest gaps for one bedroom homes (50), two bedroom homes (31) and four bedroom homes (5).

Gaps in housing for each category don’t go beyond 35 in any of the other areas in the Vale.

In some areas, the supply of housing outstrips demand.

Data in the council’s report shows that in St Athan there is a supply of 11 three bed council homes and a need for three.

Also in St Athan, there is a supply of 16 two bed council homes and a need for 10.

A member of Vale of Glamorgan Council’s homes and safe communities scrutiny committee, Cllr Stephen Haines, raised the issue of housing delivery at a meeting on Wednesday, November 6.

Cllr Haines, who is also a ward councillor for St Athan, asked: “What are you going to do to build social housing where it is really needed?”

In response, the council’s operational manager for public housing services, Nick Jones, said the council has a programme of approved and deliverable housing schemes and a reserve programme, which includes potential housing schemes.

He said a lot of the schemes on the reserve programme are currently subject to confidential commercial discussions, but added: “Rest assured we are always looking at potential schemes and we have to look far ahead because we don’t buy land today and develop it tomorrow and move people in next week.

“There is a very long lead in time to that, so the reserve programme very much captures schemes that potentially may be bought sometime in the future.

“There may be planning permission provided, but we do take a much longer term view to try and provide the accommodation that we need.

“You are absolutely right, the land that we have available and the grant funding… isn’t sufficient to deliver all of the homes that we need so we try and get the best bang for our buck.”