A total of 490 new homes were built in Carmarthenshire in 2021-22 - a year in which house prices soared - new figures have shown. The number is on a par with completions in 2020-21 but more than 200 lower than the pre-Covid year of 2019-20.
The figures are contained in a council report which tracks how many homes are built against the authority's local development plan (LDP) - a blueprint setting out how many new homes are needed and where they should go over a 15-year period. The LDP also ensures there is a sufficient supply of land for housing.
According to the current LDP, an average of 1,013 new homes should be completed in the county each year. The highest actual number built to date has been 710; the lowest 350. You can get more Carmarthenshire news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The LDP monitoring report going before a meeting of full council on December 7 said: "Whilst it is considered that progress has been made in implementing many of the adopted plan’s policies and objectives, there are elements and components which are not delivering as intended."
The report charts the peaks and troughs in house prices in Carmarthenshire and Wales, including a sharp increase during the two-year Covid period when the average cost of a home in the county shot up from £152,642 to £197,262 by the end of March, 2022. The average Wales-wide figure was £207,003.
The council has been revising its next LDP, which sets out the need for fewer homes than the current plan. It has been delayed by planning guidance from Natural Resources Wales which seeks to reduce phosphate pollution in protected rivers.
This guidance has hampered house-building on protected catchment land on the Teifi and Tywi rivers, among others, because planning applications which can't demonstrate that they won't add to phosphate pollution can't be approved. New mitigation measures are proposed which would free up the affected land for development.
Full council will discuss the revised LDP at next Wednesday's meeting - if approved it will go out for public consultation for at least six weeks. The revised plan also factors in new Wales-wide flood guidance, the council's target to be "net zero" in carbon emissions by 2030, and up-to-date population growth projections. The council can only formally adopt the new LDP once it has been examined by a Welsh Government-appointed planning inspector and approved by ministers.
According to the Land Registry, the average house price in Wales in September this year was £224,000. Mortgages have become more expensive in recent months due to rising interest rates.
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