County likely to miss target

Carmarthenshire County Council is likely to miss its own target for providing affordable homes, according to Plaid Cllr John Edwards. Cllr Edwards was speaking after attending a meeting of the council’s scrutiny committee during which it became apparent that there were a number of problems with meeting the target.

Cllr Edwards said, “We are seeing fewer and fewer affordable houses being provided under section 106 agreements, where the council makes planning consent conditional on providing such homes. Developer after developer is coming back after gaining consent, and reducing the proportion of affordable homes. In addition to that, the financial situation means that mortgages are getting harder to come by, with lenders insisting on higher levels of initial deposits.

“To make things worse,” added Cllr Edwards, “it seems as though some lenders are objecting to the re-sale condition attached to these homes, and would prefer that they could be sold on the open market so that they, the banks, have more security in lending the money. But the resale condition is vital in making sure that the homes remain available to local people. It is completely unacceptable that the policy of proving affordable homes for local people should be undermined by banks for their own commercial purposes.”