Propertymark has stated its intent to continuing working with the Welsh government as first minister Vaughan Gething sets out his property-orientated legislative plan.
Gething’s four main priorities for the remainder of his term include building safety, homelessness, visitor accommodation, and planning.
Regarding building safety, a bill that intends to go much further than the English Building Safety Act 2022 has been anticipated for a while.
Some of its measures include fundamentally reforming the current regime in Wales and every multi-occupied residential building that contains two or more residential units irrespective of height. Local councils have new powers to regulate the occupation phase of the new regime.
The Welsh Government has also introduced an Ending Homelessness White Paper, which was designed to help people stay in their homes, and Propertymark replied to the consultation on this paper in January 2024.
The professional body supported the decision not to place a legal duty on private landlords to refer tenants at risk of homelessness to housing teams, and strongly urged local councils to contemplate agents and landlords as part of the answer and consistently forge productive relationships with them.
A bill will be brought forward towards the end of the current Senedd term (May 2026) to modernise planning in Wales, which Gething has referred to as being ‘overly complex’.
Although no details about these plans have been revealed yet, a report from the Competition and Markets Authority in February 2024 recommended a list of possibilities, including more efficient monitoring and enforcement of local plans, a requirement for greater diversity of housing tenure on bigger developments, and streamlining the approval process so projects can start faster.
