The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) Cymru has broadly welcomed the
Welsh Government’s intent to introduce the Housing (Wales) Bill - but warns
that any legislation to tackle rogue landlords and penalise owners of empty homes needs to be looked at in conjunction with supporting
local SME builders.
The Housing Minister is due to make a statement in
Plenary, scheduled for Tuesday 19 November, before scrutiny of the Bill by the
National Assembly begins.
Richard
Jenkins, Director of FMB Cymru, said:
“We are pleased to see the Welsh Government looking to proactively
improve standards in the private rented sector and increase the supply of
housing. We have already had positive
dialogue with the Cabinet Ministers about these issues previously, and hope
that we can continue to work with him to improve the standard of living
throughout Wales.
“We are pleased that
the Welsh Government are giving attention to the existing housing stock, as
Wales has the oldest housing stock in Europe, and two thirds of the houses we
will be living in in fifty years’ time have already been built. We genuinely hope that the Welsh Government will
look at incentives for property owners to bring empty or disused homes back
onto the market, and not just tools such as granting councils power to increase tax on homes that are empty for a year or
more. We would hope to see support and incentives for landlords to be able to
use local building companies to carry out improvements, to raise the standards
of properties and get them back on the market. Schemes such as the Houses into Homes are a good start, but much more practical support is
needed to make a real difference.
“We also welcome the intention to tackle the issue of rogue landlords by
introducing a compulsory licensing and registration
scheme for all private rented sector landlords. They will have to work to a
code of practice which will help improve standards across this growing sector
of the housing market. We have called for action to prevent rogue builders at
the other end, being able to freely work in the domestic sector with no licensing or assessment framework.
We feel that developing a protocol for higher
standards in the building industry will support the Housing Bill to achieve its
goal of improved quality and standards in the private housing market.”
Further information:
The Welsh Government intends to introduce the Housing (Wales) Bill into the National Assembly for Wales in November, subject to the Presiding Officer’s agreement. The Housing Bill is expected to cover:
I.
tackling homelessness and empty homes;
II.
improving standards in the private rented sector;
III.
increasing the supply of housing; and
IV.
improving its quality.
The Houses into Homes scheme is a £20 million fund to provide loans to bring empty houses or commercial buildings back into use as homes - including splitting them into flats - for sale or rent.
