Cymdeithas Gwasanaethau Gwirfoddol Sir Gâr
Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services

To return to the News Listing use your back button or click here.

The ABC of affordable housing in rural Wales

Posted on Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The ABC of affordable housing in rural Wales: Can derelict vernacular buildings contribute to the solution? by Joanie Speers, founder/executive director of Adfer Ban a Chwm

Adfer Ban a Chwm [ABC] wants to ensure that the Welsh Assembly Government and the National Parks recognize the huge and valuable resource that derelict local buildings represent as a viable option in helping address the need for affordable housing in rural Wales. And most importantly, ABC can only do this with the interest and support of local communities.

Adfer Ban a Chwm’s vision links together community, regeneration, heritage, history, culture, environment, sustainability, employment, and the revival of local building skills.

Over the years it has become clear that people have had to leave their rural communities because they cannot compete for homes on the open market or have had to move in with relatives or friends so they can remain in these communities. What is also apparent is that there is a great number of derelict vernacular buildings slowly falling into disrepair and taking with them the history, heritage, culture and stories of their communities.

So we have two, seemingly unrelated issues (with the added complication of restrictive planning policy) – both seriously important for the future of rural Welsh communities. Families have held on to disused buildings waiting for planning restrictions to be relaxed so that they could either fix up and sell on or house their grown up children or aging parents. But even though the planning has not changed and these buildings fall further and further into disrepair, families continue to hope, thus contributing unknowingly, to the growing number of derelict traditional buildings and the lack of housing that local people can afford.

Over the last 30 years my husband and I have been watching these lovely old buildings crumble and eventually tumble down. We have seen roof slates disappear, ceilings cave in, floors and staircases collapse, and eventually the chimney come crashing down – to leave just a pile of stones covered with mosses and grasses. Beautiful, yet a very sad loss, and a huge waste of resources. We have also watched children of local farmers unable to buy local houses due to the open market competition from those outside the area. Extremely sad, and crippling to a local community: schools close down, shops close down and those that are left behind can become more isolated.

In June 2008, we set up a building preservation trust called Adfer Ban a Chwm: revitalise hill and valley to operate initially in the western end of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The purpose was to try to address these two pressing issues in a mutually advantageous way: to rebuild these important, yet ignored, vernacular buildings and by doing so, to provide affordable homes for local people – a community asset that would remain so in perpetuity.

ABC is looking at buildings that are under the radar of normal development. They are currently unlisted and many are too far gone and would be unlikely to get planning permission in normal circumstances. But once they are put back into use, they will last indefinitely (and certainly much longer than the design life of 40 to 60 years of new build). They not only represent embodied energy, but are also a resource crying out to be utilized, and they are a link with the heritage and traditions of the local farming communities. But once they are gone, they are gone forever.

Building up support for ABC

ABC has received recognition from the office of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Deputy Minister for Housing that the fundamental principles of the charity are in line with WAG policy to improve and increase the delivery of affordable housing, especially in rural Wales. In October, ABC ran a seminar on redundant rural buildings in partnership with the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, at Llwynywermod, Myddfai. The concluding remarks were made by Jocelyn Davies, Deputy Minister for Housing, emphasising that housing is key to the long-term sustainability of any rural community, and that addressing redundant buildings is an important part of this. Ms Davies also acknowledged the importance to not neglect historic buildings and to fully utilise existing structures.

With the support of Carmarthenshire’s Rural Housing Enabler, a public meeting was held in Llanddeusant in November 2009 to bring people up to date on ABC and talk about community involvement, to explain what affordability really means and to introduce the idea of a Housing Needs Survey – which is being launched in January 2010 for Bethlehem, Gwynfe, Llanddeusant, Llangadog and Myddfai. This survey is necessary to provide evidence that there is a need for housing, and includes, for the first time ever, a question specifically on derelict buildings and affordable housing: If a need is identified, would you support the re-building of disused domestic or farm buildings to a high standard to provide affordable housing?

Community partnerships

The aim is for ABC to work with the community at all stages of the process. The first is to interest an owner of a derelict building to consider selling it to ABC at an affordable rate, once planning has been approved and funding has been raised. Then the charity would run a recording day on the proposed building with the community. This was done on ABC’s pilot project in March in partnership with the Dyfed Archaeological Trust [DAT]. DAT’s archaeologists worked with local residents to measure and record the physical aspects of the building and to consider its links to history and archaeology. The result was a report written by DAT using evidence gathered on the day, and historical material provided by the owners of the building and additional research. The complete report is available on our website: www.abcwales.org.uk.

Depending on the information uncovered, projects could be worked up with local schools and history societies to look further into who lived in the building, what their trade was, what they wore, who their neighbours were, what the house looked like inside and so forth: bringing back to life a building and its history that has been dormant for so many years.

Once the building is on site, there are plans to work with the traditional building skills centre in Llandeilo, Tywi Afon yr Oesoedd, and also the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment’s craft apprentice scheme. This would mean that local craftsmen and apprentices would be able to train on the job with contractors acting as mentors. ABC is committed to employing local architects, local builders, local apprentices and using local materials and skills.

And then of course, the people who would live in this building would be from the local area. A ‘cascade system’ of who would be eligible to live there would be put together by the charity and the council, to ensure that the building really does become, and remain, a community asset.

What happens now

So now we have to wait for the Housing Needs Survey to take place and the information to be analysed to determine the housing need in the area. Then ABC will move forward with an option to buy agreement with the owners of the pilot building. But in the meantime, we would welcome any ideas of buildings that might fit neatly into our brief, and any offers of help or advice.

To find out more, visit www.abcwales.org.uk, and if you would like to get in touch with ABC, or support us in some way, contact Joanie Speers, joaniespeers@abcwales.org.uk.

Registered charity no. 1124385.