Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 19 June 2024.
I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response. It strikes me as being strange that you haven't considered using the borrowing powers that you have for purposes such as building social housing. You will be aware that I raised this issue last week with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning.
Now, housing associations currently have to borrow a great deal of money at very high interest rates, and they are therefore finding it difficult to pay that money and interest back. We also know that the Government finds it difficult to achieve its targets of building social homes because of the inflation in house construction. So, something like £150 million would make a substantial difference to their ability to build homes in Wales. It is strange, therefore, that you haven't considered using these powers, considering the fact that, in using money to build social housing, you could pay that money back through inflation in rent. So, given that context and the housing crisis that we are facing, will you consider using your powers to borrow money in order to provide it to housing associations or directly to build social housing in Wales?