The Welsh Government has announced an additional £133m which will be used to provide support to deliver and improve social housing across the country.

The announcement, which brings the total annual budget for social housing grants to £223m, is a major coup for the sector – and it has been incredibly well received by leading figures working in the industry.

The £133m makes up the majority of an additional £175m being made available for housing in Wales – as per the draft budget for 2020/21. £48m of that has been allocated to Social Housing Grant – alongside an extra £50m for loans to help registered social landlords fund social housing development plans and make their current properties and estate more sustainable with a view of decarbonising properties. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

In addition £10m has been allocated to the building of modular social homes and £5m extra toward the Land Release Fund which looks to accelerate the delivery of social housing on publicly owned sites.

The Welsh Government currently has a target of developing 20,000 affordable homes by 2021 – and this additional cash should help drive development in the final year of delivery.

Pobl Housing Group are the biggest developers of social housing in Wales – and they’re going to be revealing their own development plans at our Wales Development Conference in January. Speaking of the announcement their Chief Executive Amanda Davies said: “As Wales’ largest housing association, we are set to meet our target of building 3,000 affordable homes between 2016-2021. We welcome the continued and increased commitment of an additional £175m towards housing that has been announced. Setting a budget is always a difficult balancing act and overall this budget shows a continued commitment to tackling the issues of affordable housing, social care and the climate emergency and we welcome this approach for 2020 and beyond.”

Housing will be a key feature of the Wales Development Conference. Click here to register >

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