AN OPEN LETTER

to

HUW LEWIS, AM
MINISTER FOR HOUSING, REGENERATION AND HERITAGE

Dear Mr. Lewis,

This letter is of course from an individual; but from correspondence, conversations and other forms of contact in recent months, I know that my concerns regarding housing are shared by an increasing number of people across Wales. I shall try to be brief by listing those concerns under just four heads.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS (LDPs) Most people who follow Welsh news will be familiar with the outcry over plans recently unveiled for both Bodelwyddan in Denbighshire and Carmarthenshire (particularly the plan for Carmarthen town itself). While the plans themselves were drawn up by the relevant local authorities these bodies insist they were left no alternative because diktats from Cardiff ordered them to provide for new homes in numbers greatly exceeding of any predicted local demand. This is because these LDPs are based on flawed population projections that are in reality no more than an estimate of how many people might be persuaded to move to an area. The whole mechanism reeks of social engineering. I therefore urge you to consider recalling all the existing, discredited LDPs and to revise them in line with realistic projections of population growth and future demand from within the existing population.

SOCIAL HOUSING There is a widespread perception that local people are ignored in the social housing sector by housing associations and others who are obliged (or choose) to give preference to persons from outside Wales regarded as being in greater need. It can not be right that decent, hardworking Welsh locals, already unable to afford to buy in their home community, are then denied a decent home because our housing associations are locked into an England and Wales system that prioritises people with no connection to Wales.

It cannot be right that a problem family making itself deliberately homeless in Birmingham or turning up in Wales after having done so qualifies for social housing in a Welsh town theyve never heard of, and ahead of people born and bred in that town. Our social housing providers should surely operate within a Welsh framework in which strong local connections outweigh all other considerations.

PRIVATE RENTED HOUSING You have been in the Assembly since 1999 and so you are obviously aware of the problems experienced by many of our seaside resorts since the demise of so-called bucket and spade holidays. Buildings formerly used for holiday accommodation have been converted to flats for which tenants have invariably been found with the help of local authorities, probation services, charities and other agencies over the border. This accounts for the problems experienced by Rhyl and similar towns. And explains why Rhyl West electoral ward now qualifies as the most deprived ward in Wales. Which in turn explains why so much of an already stretched Welsh budget has to be directed to solving problems directly attributable to this unnecessary and surely? undesirable influx. So the question has to be, why is Wales paying money it can ill-afford to deal with problems certainly along the north coast largely imported from England? More importantly, what plans do you have to deal with this problem?

THE RURAL HOUSING CRISIS Another problem of which you must be aware is the inability of many Welsh people, especially in rural and coastal areas, to buy a home, even with both partners working. This is due to the combination of low wages locally coupled with property prices inflated by an external demand. The result is not simply a matter of property ownership; for this phenomenon leads to communities and areas losing their character and their cultural identity. Another feature is the deteriorating demographic profile. Rural areas are losing too many of their young people, often replaced by retirees who exacerbate the worsening indigenous age profile. Your colleague, Jane Hutt, was recently reported as saying that this influx of elderly people somehow proved how wonderful Wales is! Yet Ms. Hutt is the Finance Minister, so she must be aware of the economic and other problems facing all Western countries due to falling birth-rates and an ageing population. That being so, what possessed her to proclaim that an already ageing indigenous population being augmented by elderly people from outside Wales is a good thing! So what plans does your Government have to help local people into the private housing sector in those areas where, currently, too many are priced out of their local market?

CONCLUSION To sum up, there is a growing belief that, in many parts of Wales, all forms of housing provision are unrelated to the needs of Welsh people: even dismissive of, or openly hostile towards, those needs. Looking at the fuller picture, and taking into account other features I have chosen not to include such as the West Cheshire plan more and more people suspect that housing strategies in Wales have little to do with meeting Welsh needs at all and more to do with serving a secret and ugly agenda. This may have been understandable in the constitutional arrangement that existed before devolution, but now that we have a Welsh Government, and with that Government having powers over housing, it is no longer acceptable. Many people are growing frustrated because nothing seems to have changed from those pre-devolution days. For it should be axiomatic that a Welsh Government serves the needs and interests of Welsh people. If it does not, then for what purpose does it exist? And when as in housing there are clearly many areas of the country in which Welsh people are being disadvantaged and Welsh communities damaged, then it becomes the duty of that Welsh Government to introduce legislation to remedy these problems. I, and many others, Mr. Lewis, look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely