Gwynedd housing delivery 907 homes below plan trajectory

Housing completions in Gwynedd’s planning authority area stand 907 below the local development plan’s trajectory, according to the council’s latest annual monitoring report. The report records 2,805 completed homes from the plan’s 2011 base year through 2025/26, compared with 3,712 projected. It puts the cumulative shortfall at 24.4%. The figures exclude the part of Gwynedd within Eryri National Park.

A high affordable share, but a delivery gap

During the latest monitoring year, from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, 118 homes were completed. Of those, 91 were affordable homes, representing 77%. The report attributes the increased affordable share mainly to developments completed by housing associations. That proportion describes the homes completed during one year. It is not the affordable share of Gwynedd’s existing housing stock, and a high percentage does not remove the shortfall in total delivery.

Allocated sites are behind

The report’s cumulative breakdown shows 715 homes completed on sites allocated for housing, against 1,299 in the trajectory. That is a shortfall of 584, or 45%. Larger sites that were not allocated in the plan performed differently: these sites delivered 1,259 homes against 1,243 projected. These are separate parts of the same planning-area total.

What happens next

Cyngor Gwynedd publicised the monitoring findings on 14 October, following the report’s presentation to Cabinet on 13 October. The existing plan covers 2011–2026 and was adopted in 2017. Work on a replacement local development plan is under way. The monitoring report says the suitability of housing allocations will be important to that work. A plan can identify land and set conditions for development, but cannot compel landowners and developers to build the projected homes.