More needs to be done to help youngsters and key workers get on the housing ladder and planning laws need to be more flexible, housing experts in the county have been told.

Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Paul Davies identified planning and affordable housing as the two key issues facing the county when he addressed the AGM of the Pembrokeshire Housing Association.

"All too often, it is our young people who find it so difficult to get on the housing market," he told delegates at the Plas Hyfryd Hotel in Narberth.

"Ten years ago, almost half a million people got onto the Housing Ladder. In 2005, that figure stood at just over a quarter of a million – The lowest total since 1980."*

Mr Davies pointed out that it was often key workers who found it hardest to get on the first rung of the property ladder. And he praised the Association for operating the Homebuy and Local Keyworkers' Schemes which aim to help people buy their own affordable homes.

"Efforts such as these show that Pembrokeshire Housing Association leads the way in providing affordable housing," he said.

He added that he and South Pembrokeshire's AM Angela Burns want to increase the involvement of town and community councillors in the local planning process.

"This is an area where responsibility truly needs to be handed back to residents, not arbitrarily decided in Cardiff Bay," he said. "Rather than massive developments of thousands of houses, we could regenerate many villages if we were to build a few homes in different villages.

"This would preserve the character of the village whilst also increasing the community."