Lack of Welsh housing data sparks NRLA campaign for annual housing survey

Lack of Welsh housing data sparks NRLA campaign for annual housing survey

9:27 AM, 27th August 2024, About 2 months ago 1

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The NRLA is calling for a regular Welsh housing survey to help future housing policy decisions.

The NRLA says there should be a Welsh housing survey similar to the English Housing Survey that has been run annually in England since 1967.

The last Welsh Housing Conditions survey was carried out in 2017/18.

Welsh private rented sector has changed considerably

The NRLA has warned that the failure to conduct regular surveys has led to a data shortage when seeking to understand the private rented sector in Wales.

An NRLA spokesperson said: “The NRLA is campaigning for a Welsh housing survey because the association believes it will help inform future housing policy and energy efficiency decisions.

“While there has been no survey of conditions in the Welsh housing market for six years, the private rented sector has changed considerably with the introduction of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act, increased demand for homes across all tenures, as well as short-term holiday lets.

“A regular housing survey would capture valuable information and enable policymakers to answer some fundamental questions, such as how big the private rented sector is and how satisfied contract holders are, avoiding the need to rely on anecdotal evidence.”

Housing survey would be too expensive

The Local government Housing and Communities Committee heard evidence for a Welsh housing survey back in March this year.

NRLA’s Wales Operations Manager Steven Bletsoe, told the committee: “The Welsh government needs to have accurate data on the housing market, especially the PRS, to make informed policy decisions.

Alongside Mr Bletsoe, Richard Rowntree of Paragon Bank and others emphasised the need for more detailed data. They argued that better data would give more confidence to lenders to invest in the private rented sector.

However, in April 2024 the former Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning Julie James MS said that an annual housing survey would be too expensive.


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Cider Drinker

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9:41 AM, 27th August 2024, About 2 months ago

What’s really needed is a immigration survey. We need to know how many of the 8 billion people in the world would like to be welcomed to Treasury Island. Only then will we know how many National Parks to concrete over.

Labour won’t even put a number on net migration over the next 5 years so how do they know that we will need 1.5 million new homes?

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