Flintshire on track to build hundreds of new affordable homes

More than 700 new homes are expected to be built in Flintshire over the next three years.

Members of the Community and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet next Thursday to discuss the council’s Housing Strategy Action Plan 2019-2024.

The plan sets out the vision for how the Council, with its partners, will deliver affordable housing, provide the relevant support to its residents and ensure it creates sustainable homes.

The number of completed housing remains below target in the current year, but Flintshire is on track to deliver around 730 new affordable and social homes over the next three years, subject to consultation and planning approval.

Over this three-year period, Flintshire will be allocated around £40 million from Welsh Government to help it achieve its social housing priorities.

Chief officer for Housing and Communities, Vicky Clark, said:

“As had been forecast in last year’s report, we continue to see a significant hiatus in development of new housing across the county. This stems from the impact of the pandemic, the cost-of-living-crisis, rising interest rates together with wage and material inflation and delays in material availability.

“Despite the delays, there has been progress and the council has continued to successfully adapt to new ways of working.

“The number of homes completed will increase in future years as the Planned Development Programme (PDP), which has now been approved by Welsh Government, gears up to deliver around 730 new homes.”

Members will also review the progress report and note which priorities the council has achieved and which ones require further work.

The report reveals 44 new social rent properties were completed in 2022/23 against the target of 86, and 5 out of an anticipated 10 units to meet specialist provision were completed. However, there was a 20% increase in the number of one-bedroom social rented properties and the council also brought 58 empty properties back into use.

As part of the work to improve the quality and sustainability of people’s homes, improvements are being made to fuel poor homes, including tariff switching advice and the installation of fuel-efficient heating systems. More than 1,000 households have received support.

Councillor Sean Bibby, Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, said:

“Despite the significant challenges over the last couple of years, it is positive to see that progress is being made. We have a long way to go but I am confident that we will achieve our goal of delivering the right housing to our residents in a sustainable way.”