With the the cost of living crisis people are genuinely concerned whether they can afford to heat, or even stay in their homes home this winter. In response to this Plaid Cymru have demanded that the Welsh Government freeze rents and ban evictions over the winter. You can read WalesOnline's guide to this policy here. Plaid MS and spokesman on housing, Mabon ap Gwynfor has written the following opinion piece on the issue:
In the week that World Homeless Day was marked, Plaid Cymru has been focusing on the real risk of homelessness that too many people in Wales will face this winter. We’re in the middle of not just a housing crisis but one of the worst cost-of-living crises in living memory - and both crises are inextricably linked. The cost of everyday living is rooted in housing costs, and in turn rising housing costs are exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.
Already, nearly half of Welsh households struggle to afford anything beyond the basics, such as food, heating and toiletries. But with soaring interest rates, the conversation is moving beyond the already heart-breaking choice between heating and eating. Attention is now on what happens when people can no longer afford a roof over their head.
Wales’ anti-poverty thinktank, the Bevan Foundation, say that one in nine people in Wales are worried that they may lose their home, and this increases to one in four for those in privately rented accommodation. With waiting lists for social housing already in excess of 67,000 households, where do people go when they can’t afford to rent privately?
As the cold fingers of winter creep ever closer, this is the worst time of year to be at risk of losing your home, and yet we know that this is a real threat for too many households in Wales. This is the reality of the interlinked and interlocked housing and cost-of-living crises. Our communities didn’t cause these crises, but they will pay the price if respective governments in Westminster and Wales don’t act now.
What Wales needs now is leadership. That leadership will never come from the Westminster parties – least not the Tories who are too busy drawing up plans to protect profiteering companies at the expense of working people.
Meanwhile the Labour party here in Wales are missing in action. The Scottish Government has already implemented a rent freeze and eviction moratorium – incidentally following a Labour campaign in Scotland. Our question is why the Labour Government here in Wales is failing to act to protect Welsh citizens?
In a debate being held in the Senedd this week, I will be calling on the Labour government here in Wales to use the powers it has to protect people of Wales from the brunt of Tory harm. They could immediately act to freeze all rents and ban all evictions over winter. This would have the immediate benefit of ensuring that no-one in privately rented accommodation would be at risk of being made homeless over winter due to eviction by their landlord.
I fully expect the Welsh Government to talk about the need to gather evidence, but the truth is that this work should have been commissioned and completed as soon as possible. Plaid Cymru saw this coming. Scottish Government have acted. Meanwhile Welsh Labour is fiddling while Wales freezes.
I fully expect Labour to list the reasons why they shouldn’t enact a rent freeze, or place a temporary ban on evictions. The point we’re making is that inaction shouldn’t be an option. If Welsh Government do nothing, then people will be made homeless during winter. And if people are made homeless during winter, with known shortages of temporary accommodation, then they risk their health and their lives. If Welsh Government enacts a rent freeze and eviction moratorium, then people might be spared this ordeal during our coldest months.
I also fully expect the Welsh Government to shift the blame on to the Westminster Government, but this is to ignore the fact that our government here in Wales has the power to act on the cost-of-living crisis, and they should do so by enacting a freeze on all rents, and a ban on all evictions. Taking such emergency measures was considered necessary during the Covid-19 crisis. We say such measures are again necessary for this current cost-of-living crisis, and failure to do so will represent a dereliction of duty by Labour in Wales to maximise the benefits of devolution and to protect our most vulnerable.
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