Housing for everyone, please, not just students

ANOTHER block of student flats has received approval recently from Swansea Council’s planning committee – a 645bed flat scheme in SA1 overlooking the river (Post, November 8), so it is in a suitably prestigious location.

Meanwhile, the council is publishing its Homelessness Strategy and Action Plan for 2018-2022, and this contains the statement that there is “a lack of one-bedroom accommodation, and, in particular, affordable housing options for under 35-year-olds” and that this is likely to lead to “an increase in young single people being unable to resolve their own housing issues”.

Welcome to 21st Century Swansea!

While there appears to be a complete takeover of the city’s core central zone by student flats and other facilities to meet their needs, accommodation for permanent residential use seems to be largely shifting to greenfield sites on the peripheries of Swansea.

If this happens in my ward, it will destroy high quality agricultural land, threaten the area’s biodiversity, and is currently affecting our historical heritage, with 80 houses being built on the former civic offices site, which was the legacy of John Dillwyn Llewelyn.

It’s most unlikely that any of the affordable housing on the scheme will provide one-bedroom accommodation, and private properties will need to be bigger and more costly to purchase in order to make any development financially viable.

So it looks like tough luck if you’re young and single in Swansea.

Try to prolong your student years, because then you’ll be accommodated, but after that, I’m afraid there’s going to be very little on offer to you. WENDY FITZGERALD Councillor, Penllergaer Ward