Council approves three year vision for housing services

Carmarthenshire County Council’s three year Housing Investment Programme 2025-2028 has recently been approved at a meeting of Full Council.

The programme sets out the Council’s vision for maintaining Council owned homes and delivering affordable housing in the county. It also sets out the Council’s commitment to:

• Continue to invest in existing Council owned homes, maintaining the standard and making them more energy efficient as well as delivering new, affordable homes for local people across Carmarthenshire using a range of solutions. This includes investment in single person and specialist supported accommodation
•  Progress with a balanced approach to estate and tenancy management, supporting tenants, with housing officers visible and accessible as well as taking enforcement action when needed
• Working with residents living in Council owned homes to help shape services, encouraging tenants to be a part of the conversation by receiving regular information, taking part in surveys and providing feedback
• Continue to improve the repairs service, reducing wait times for non-urgent work and keeping the number of void Council owned homes as low as possible, letting homes quickly to reduce pressure on homelessness services
• Linking the housing investment programme with wider regeneration projects in both town centres and rural areas
• Increase the landlord provision of specialist temporary supported accommodation
• Maintain the highest standards of compliance with legislative, regulatory and local policy requirements, reviewing and continually updating procedures, processes, and policies and consistently monitoring on-site health and safety practices

The investment programme has been made possible through income received from rent payments and other funding sources, enabling an investment exceeding £282m (capital £114m and revenue £168m) to deliver housing services over the next three years.

Cllr Linda Davies Evans, Cabinet Member for Homes said:

The Housing Investment Programme 2025-2028 sets out our commitment to ensure that Council housing services in Carmarthenshire meet the needs of our community and provides safe, affordable and high quality homes for local people.

This plan will serve as a framework for delivering our vision of a thriving housing service which looks to address the challenges ahead and ensures that our housing services remain responsive, resilient and sustainable into the future."

The Housing Investment Programme 2025-2028 illustrates Carmarthenshire County Council’s commitment to provide 2,000 new Council homes in the next five years and contributes to The Welsh Housing Quality Standards (WHQS) 2023 which highlights the need to de-carbonise social housing.