Welsh council builds first council house development for 30 years
Wrexham Council has completed its first council house development since 1991.
The 30-year hiatus has ended with the construction of 14 homes on the Clos Nant Silyn estate in the town’s Smithfield ward.
Council house building restarted thanks to funds from the Housing Revenue Account and Affordable House Grant from the Welsh Government.
Cllr David Bithell, Lead Member of Health and Adult Social Care, said: “It’s fantastic to see this project come to fruition. This is just part of our ongoing commitment is to provide homes that are well managed, decent and warm, with modern facilities, and which provide lifetime homes for our tenants.”
Council house building in Wales has slowly started to return after decades of inaction but remains nowhere near previous levels.
In 1976, around 8,000 were completed in Wales, compared to an annual average of around 15 in more recent years.
A lack of council accommodation is part of an ongoing housing crisis with pressures created by rising house prices, second home ownership and increased rents.
‘Sold-off’
The Welsh Government scrapped the ‘Right to Buy’ legislation in 2017 after around 139,000 council and housing association homes had been sold off.
Wrexham Council says the new development is just the start of a building programme that will see more council homes created in Johnstown, Rhos and Llay.
Leader of Wrexham Council, Cllr Mark Pritchard said: “I’m delighted to see the Clos Nant Silyn development kick off our home building programme alongside our continuous commitment to refurbish our older housing stock.
“Earlier this year the Council’s Executive Board met and approved the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan that will see Wrexham Council investing £58.9 million into the Council housing stock of over 11,000 properties throughout the 2021-22 financial year.”
The Clos Nant Silyn estate includes eight one-bed apartments, four two-beds, a fully adapted bungalow and an older person’s bungalow.
The new homes which have been allocated tenants come with fibre broadband connections and solar panels with battery storage to support lower energy costs.
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Great news. More of these around Wales please.
Cymru does it right.
Great news we’ll done Wrexam
Long overdue and very welcome. Provides secure homes, income for the council and stops public money being syphoned into private sector mortgages.
A small number but a move in the right direction. We also need to train more construction workers throughout Wales
When affordable we need to build many many more council houses for too long have we had to put up with overpriced private accommodation with no real security and housing associations high time we had more council housing a proper socialist move and wales will be better for it all the more reason to vote welsh labour unlike the tories in England
Don’t think Wrexham Council is Labour these days but the rest of what you say is right. Perhaps with the UNESCO announcement for Gwynedd, there will be some joined-up thinking now that allows young people to stay and thrive within their communities.