Welsh contingent fly the flag in Westminster

1 bus, 50 Welsh housing enthusiasts, 20 Welsh MPs, 1 manifesto and 3 specific asks….

It was a long day for a delegation from Wales led by Community Housing Cymru and the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru including staff, board members and tenants who converged on London to meet Welsh MPs in Westminster at a reception hosted by David TC Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouthshire, before making the short walk across College Green to attend the biggest housing rally in a generation.

It was a productive meeting with 20 MPs from across Wales who were given the opportunity to hear first hand the housing association success story in Wales and, in particular, the more than bricks and mortar message. It also gave us the opportunity to spell out how they can enable us to deliver even more for their constituencies. MPs were particularly interested to learn that Wales will not have the same flexibility afforded to Scotland and Northern Ireland to enable the housing element of Universal Credit to continue to be paid direct to landlords, and the impact that this potentially has on tenants and housing associations. We will be following this up with all parties ahead of the General Election.

As for the rally, there was a huge buzz around the venue and Westminster as rally attendees converged from right across the country. 

2,300 people, a packed Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, and possibly the most eclectic selection of speakers gathered on the same platform. From Nigel Farage to Ken Loach to Grant Shapps to Owen Jones and Frances O’Grady, leader of the TUC, speakers from across the political spectrum pledged their support to the Homes for Britain campaign and committed to end the housing crisis within a generation. 

The event attracted significant media attention and had huge social media impact both in the run-up, during and after the event. As an exercise designed to amplify the message of the housing crisis before the short election campaign, it was undoubtedly a success. Perhaps more significantly, the consensus amongst the housing associations involved is that for the first time in decades, the sector feels and is behaving like a movement again.

Homes for Britain has offered the opportunity to raise the profile of housing issues across the UK. Our main focus now, with housing devolved to Welsh Government is our own Assembly Elections in May 2016. We are already talking with potential partners about how we can translate some of the successes of Homes for Britain into a vehicle to campaign for housing to feature prominently as an election issue in Wales.

Housing has found its voice across the UK and our challenge now is to build on this success, amplify our voice right across Wales and ensure that housing is a key election issue being discussed on the doorstep by our politicians and members of the public in 12 months time.

Are you ready for the challenge?

Stuart Ropke
CHC Group Chief Executive 

You can view the rest of the photos from the day in our Facebook album. 

Wales’ Collective Energy Switch – helping to reduce energy use

Wales is a small country. One that often punches above its weight, but also one that is able to bring partners together and set up national schemes that can make a real difference.

With awareness of energy costs at its highest, and set to become a key element of the forthcoming General Election campaigns, Wales is embarking on its third collective energy switch.

With the support of the Welsh Government and partners across Wales, the collective energy switch has been developed to ensure the best deal for Welsh householders.

The idea behind collective energy switching is similar to bulk-buying products to get a better price. In a collective energy switch, those interested in receiving a better deal group together as a ‘collective' before approaching the energy suppliers. The larger the number of households that get involved, the more attractive the group of customers are likely to be to the energy suppliers.

The Energy Saving Trust in Wales is working in partnership with Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Councils to deliver Cyd Cymru / Wales Together.

Esther Tallent, Energy Saving Trust’s Advice Centre Manager, said: “Keeping an eye on energy costs and switching supplier when a better deal is available can potentially benefit everyone. Last year, Cyd Cymru / Wales Together helped over 1,500 households in Wales to switch to a cheaper energy tariff, saving £185 per household on average.

“What is also particularly interesting is that those people who are keen to monitor their energy costs are also keen to reduce the energy they use. We therefore take the opportunity, when supporting our registered households, to provide a range of energy saving tips and information about other schemes and grants that can support them.

“The Wales-wide scheme has really captured people’s imaginations and it’s proved to be a great vehicle to help people save energy.”

More information on Cyd Cymru / Wales Together can be found here.

Register online before Sunday 1st March or call 0800 093 5902 before Friday 27th February to ensure that you are part of the next collective. Phone lines are open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

Nick Beasley, Marketing and Communications Manager
Energy Saving Trust

Crowd Sourced Constitutional Convention

For those of you who were at CHC’s Annual Conference in November last year, you may recall both Matthew Taylor and Lee Waters challenging us as a sector to stop waiting for others to change things or stop waiting for others to do things and get on and do it ourselves...

This call came at a time when the constitutional promises that had been made to the people of Scotland following the referendum were generating a much broader debate about the powers we have and, more importantly, the powers we want here in Wales. Couple this with the challenges we as a sector and tenants are facing, and it seemed that the forthcoming General Election would be a lost opportunity if we didn’t make the right calls for change in those non devolved areas which have such an impact on our communities. So, for this reason, CHC made the decision to become a partner in the Institute of Welsh Affairs' Crowd Sourced Constitutional Convention.

This is a debate about the future of Wales. The direction of travel for this debate is not set in stone and we are inviting people to respond to the draft plan. CHC will be involved in all aspects but we will specifically be facilitating the discussion around ‘What makes Wales a fairer country?’. We anticipate certain parts of the welfare state being a key focus in this debate. At CHC, we want to translate the discussions around constitution, devolution and powers into the reality of delivery. As a sector, we have an in depth understanding of existing policies, processes and procedures surrounding key areas of welfare and crucially understand the direct impact they have on individuals and communities. Therefore, when we ask ‘What do we want our communities to look like?', we’ll also be asking, 'What’s stopping us from getting there?' and 'What needs to change?'.

So during the next eight weeks, we hope you will get involved and that you will encourage your colleagues, friends and family to share their views and join the debate to shape a fairer Wales.

Go on, what are you waiting for? ... Permission?!


Sioned Hughes
Director of Policy and Regeneration