With the publication of the Welsh Government's long-awaited White Paper on Adequate Housing, Fair Rents and Affordability today (Thursday, 24 October), there came confirmation that there is no intention to incorporate the right to adequate housing into Welsh law.

Despite the Welsh Government recognising in their written statement that "the principle that everyone has a right to an adequate home is one we wholeheartedly support", it was decided against legislating the right to adequate housing as "considerable resource would be required to make such legislation, and this could lead to the focus being taken away from the core task of delivering more adequate housing and increasing capacity within the housing sector."

In response, Jeff Smith, chair of the Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Communities Group, said:
"There was an opportunity through this White Paper to transform the way we see housing in Wales, and begin to seriously address the housing crisis by establishing the legal right to adequate housing. Its failure to come close to this is extremely disappointing.
"For decades, the future of our communities has been left to the whims of the open housing market, and the result of this system is a housing crisis that is forcing families and young people to leave their communities and over 90,000 households on social housing waiting lists. The ambition of the White Paper does not correspond at all to the scale of the crisis.
"Dealing with the individual symptoms of the housing crisis on their own, as in the White Paper, is not the solution. The root of the crisis, which is a system based on an open housing market, is what needs to be addressed.
“Cymdeithas yr Iaith has been calling for a 'Property Act - Nothing Less' for months, and that will be the message during the consultation period for this document. We call on the Government to reconsider their proposals and introduce legislation that would ensure that houses are treated as homes rather than as financial assets, and make the right to a home a statutory one."

Cymdeithas yr Iaith have also criticised the delay in drawing up the White Paper, and the lack of commitment to introduce a Bill based upon it in this Senedd term. Jeff Smith added:

"We have seen constant postponement over the last three years, from a consultative Green Paper to today's consultative White Paper on what could be introduced in the next Senedd term in 2026. What are people supposed to do in the meantime, live in caravans?”