KIDWELLY: Sixteen new council homes at Parc Pendre, built to cut tenants’ energy bills

Sixteen new council homes have been completed at Parc Pendre in Kidwelly, all of them for social rent.

The development is a mix of sizes: four one-bedroom homes, six two-bedroom, four three-bedroom and two four-bedroom.

Each one has a heating system that draws warmth from the outside air rather than burning gas, known as an air source heat pump, along with solar panels and high levels of insulation. Carmarthenshire County Council says the combination is intended to keep running costs down for the people living there.

The homes also have off-road parking, and what the council describes as contemporary kitchens and bathrooms.

Cllr Emlyn Schiavone, the council’s cabinet member for homes, said good housing did more than put a roof over people’s heads.

“Access to high-quality, affordable housing plays a vital role in improving health and well-being while helping to create thriving, sustainable communities,” he said.

“These new homes will provide safe and welcoming neighbourhoods where families can put down roots and take pride in where they live. They will also support the local economy by helping to attract and retain a skilled workforce.”

Part of a bigger programme

Kidwelly is the latest piece of a building programme the council began four years ago. In February 2022 it approved a plan it valued at more than £300m, to deliver over 2,000 homes in five years, which it described at the time as the largest council housebuilding effort in Carmarthenshire since the 1970s.

The council says that followed an earlier target of 1,000 affordable homes, set in 2016, which it delivered a year ahead of schedule. It also says it was the first council in Wales to suspend the Right to Buy, in 2015, to stop its housing stock shrinking.

Recent schemes have leaned on conversions as well as new build. In 2024 the council turned old commercial buildings in Carmarthen and Llanelli into 20 flats, including the former YMCA in Llanelli town centre.

What tenants say

Tenants are already in at Parc Pendre. The council has published feedback from several of them, unnamed, one of whom it says had been living in temporary accommodation before the move.

“I was desperate to come here as I followed the homes being built,” they said. “I was ecstatic when I was offered one. My health has improved greatly. I love the apartment and the garden. I feel so very lucky.”

Another pointed to the insulation. “The house is so well insulated that noise from outside is hardly noticeable,” they said, adding that the garden was “a lovely safe space for my daughter”.

A third said the solar panels and heating system were “really good, cheap to run and easy to use”.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.