Response from : Anwyl Construction Company Limited

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the above Inquiry.

Anwyl Construction Co Ltd is a well-established regional housebuilder based in Rhyl Denbighshire and operating throughout North Wales as well as North West England.

The barriers to homebuilding generally are well documented and apply as much in Wales as elsewhere.

The particular barriers in Wales are set out below-

Costs

- The additional costs involved in meeting Code for Sustainable Homes and Sprinklers which do not or will not apply in England,

- The widespread adoption by local planning authorities of the Three Dragons Appraisal Tool for assessing development viability and the level of contributions, including affordable housing, that developers are required to make as part of any planning permissions. This Tool has been widely challenged by the HBF and housebuilders as not properly reflecting the true costs of development and advising that developments are viable based on what housebuilders consider to be an unviable level of developer costs/contributions,

- The unhelpful and unrealistic approach adopted by Welsh Water in the UDP/LDP adoption process which essentially enables LPAs to adopt LDPs when the true costs and timing of these costs is hidden and postponed until planning application stage. The recent letter sent by Persimmon to local authorities in South Wales and copied to Minister demonstrates this point (see point 8 at the end of the letter) as well as other points raised above

Support

- The additional support available in England to both mortgage providers and housepurchasers which is not available in Wales,

The cumulative impact of the above is that a very challenging situation is being made even more challenging in Wales. This is sufficient to force Persimmon not to invest in any further land/developments in South Wales.

It also makes investment decisions even more risky with the result that investment is delayed or reduced, a desperate shortage of houses made more so, and jobs lost or job creation reduced.

Please let me know if you need any further information or assistance to consider our submission.