NDM8409 - Opposition Debate
Tabled on 15/11/2023 | For debate on 22/11/2023To propose that the Senedd:
1. Notes:
a) the continued cost-of-living pressures being faced by renters;
b) Wales’s annual average rent rise of 13.9 per cent in 2021-22;
c) Wales’s further average rent rise of 6.5 per cent in 2022-23, with Shelter Cymru citing examples of 100 per cent rent increases; and
d) that student rents take up 60 per cent of the average UK maintenance package, with 32 per cent of students studying in Wales unable to pay their rents.
2. Believes that no one in Wales should be put at risk of homelessness as a result of high inflation and a lack of affordable housing stock.
3. Calls on the Welsh Government to immediately implement in the private sector:
a) a rent freeze; and
b) measures to ban evictions this winter.
Tabled By
Amendments
Delete point 3 and replace with:
Calls on the Welsh Government to:
a) urgently take action to turn Wales’s thousands of empty properties back into homes;
b) explore opportunities with the sector to stop the landlord exodus from the Welsh rental market;
c) work with landlords and contract holders to prevent evictions over the winter months;
d) deliver an action plan to build 12,000 houses a year; and
e) make a statement on the review of Rent Smart Wales.
Tabled By
Delete all and replace with:
To propose that the Senedd:
1. Notes the continued cost-of-living pressures being faced by renters.
2. Welcomes the commitment in the Programme for Government, as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, to publish a White Paper setting out proposals on the potential to establish a system of fair rents as well as new approaches to make homes affordable for those on local incomes.
3. Welcomes the bold, ambitious and radical reform for the future set out in the White Paper on Ending Homelessness developed as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru.
4. Believes that no one in Wales should be put at risk of homelessness as a result of insufficient housing-related benefits.
5. Recognises the single biggest lever to address affordability issues in the private rented sector is Local Housing Allowance rates, and calls on UK Government to uplift rates to match the actual cost of rent.
