A view from housing: What would the draft Wales Bill mean in practice?

The draft Wales Bill, published last week, caused all the usual political rumblings. Amid all the talk of insults to Wales, Whitehall being a bad loser, and the looming threat of a constitutional crisis, there doesn’t seem to have been too much discussion about the practical implications of the proposals within the Bill.

A devolved legislature with extensive powers is now clearly the settled will of the people of Wales.

And while technical debates about constitutional mechanisms and legislation probably won’t be a topic of conversation as the people of Wales eat their tea tonight; job security, health, and housing probably will.

What will the draft Wales Bill mean to, for example, a social housing tenant in Bangor? Or a homeless woman in a hostel in Cardiff?

Housing is probably the area of devolved policy where we have seen Wales and England diverge most over the last 16 years.

Not only is devolved government the settled will of the people of Wales, but a vastly different approach to housing (amongst other things) is too.

In Wales, we have had successive governments committed to investment in social housing, through Social Housing Grant, which has allowed the housing association sector to provide an average of 2,000 additional homes each year. At the same time, Welsh Government supports a ‘Help to Buy’ product which allows better access to home ownership. Across the border, UK Government pursues home ownership as the be all and end all of housing policy, with funding for social housing sacrificed for a loosely defined ‘affordable’ home ownership offer.

Devolution has meant that the housing association sector in Wales has had an opportunity to define itself very differently from our friends across the border.

The Right to Buy for housing associations and the 1% cut to social rents will have a profound impact on affordable housing as we know it in England. In Wales, there are proposals afoot to abolish Right to Buy completely, and we hope that Welsh Government won’t follow the same path on rents – a path now roundly rejected by housing providers and tenants groups.

The draft Wales Bill threatens the ability to legislate for these policy differences – voted for by the people of Wales.

Welsh Government suggests that the Housing Act, which took action on the scourge of empty homes, created new models of co-operative housing and takes action to improve the private sector, would not have been within the competence of the Assembly. This is inexplicable.

It is not a leap to suggest that the proposals in their current form take us back to the dark days of the Legislative Competence Order (LCO). Those of us schooled in the history of LCOs, or indeed housing policy, will know that this didn’t work.

The Reserved Powers model this Bill seeks to enshrine should be about simplicity and clarity. For legislators and voters.

In its present form, the Bill adds to the confusion - not only threatening to slam the brakes on the devolution journey, but threatening to halt the significant progress Wales has made as a nation in a number of areas. For housing, devolution hasn’t just allowed us to do things differently; it has allowed us to better meet the needs, and the will, of the people of Wales.



Aaron Hill
Public Affairs Manager, Community Housing Cymru Group

This blog post was originally published on IWA's Click on Wales site. You can read it here. 

Older people deserve better

The word 'deserve' disturbs me and implies that whoever ‘deserves’ has had to have done something to earn whatever is on offer. This actually implies an inequality for some people. Those people might be you, me, your sister, brother, mother or father. I have always been interested in how the use of language to describe people and practices does tend to influence attitude.

So I want to concentrate on the fact that we need to remove that word 'Deserve' and focus on rights for all people, recognising the humanity in us all.

It is amazing and indeed shameful that older people felt the urgent need in Wales to actually produce an explanation of what Human Rights meant to them.

But we must understand why we still have to use the word ‘Deserve’ when we consider older people's care and support. I think this is because there is still evidence out there of failed care, omissions of services and public inquiries into abuse.

My contention is that we are continually being pushed into lobbying for better services for older people, and using terms such as ‘Deserve’ indicates that society and public services still do not understand ageing or adequately recognise the real cost and benefit to supporting older people to maintain their health and wellbeing.

Similarly prejudicial remarks have long been recognised as inappropriate when applied to, for example, gender or ethnicity. So it seems that older people are still the last frontier and we are still having to use this term to get what older people actually need to enable them to experience a higher quality later life.

The attitudes that fester the lobbying for better services I have just mentioned affect assessments of need and packages of support. The customary diagnostic rigour which, for instance, healthcare professionals have been trained to apply as standard, can sometimes be mysteriously replaced for older people as patients by ageist therapeutic emptiness. In other words, nothing substantial to help them maintain their health. Professional values and training still overly prioritise the acute, the rare, the high-tech and the cure, and need to change to reflect the reality of modern health and social care practice which now is beginning to embrace, in partnership, the work undertaken within housing services for older people.

If we are providing a public service based on need and preventing ill health, and also implementing action on health and wellbeing as equally important, then we must give adequate and full assessments to all the people who actually turn up in the system, rather than for those whom we would find more personally engaging, or those ‘consumers’ who shout loudest.

It's great that the housing sector is championing a change in the approach to support for the older person and I am proud to be a part of that. However, there needs to be much more commitment all through the health system and action undertaken now which recognises the work that we, the housing champions for older people, have done to promote the rights of older people to continue to live independently and to experience a good later life.

Lets get to a situation in Wales where we never have to use the term ‘Deserve’ any more.

Lorraine Morgan
Board Member, Care & Repair Cymru

Co-operation housing helps build co-operative communities

At the Wales Co-operative Centre, we are running a Welsh Government funded project to utilise co-operative housing approaches to help meet the demand for affordable housing. We know that co-operative approaches lead to a sense of ownership and empowerment which lead in turn to improvements in quality. These principles are extremely important drivers for those social landlords currently engaging in developing this approach – increased tenant ownership and empowerment leads to reduced arrears, reduced void turnarounds and improved community and quality of life.

In West Wales, Grŵp Gwalia is working in partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council to develop a co-operative housing scheme near Carmarthen town centre that will see 27 new homes built.

In recent months, Gwalia has held events to engage with potential members to the Carmarthen housing co-operative. A core group has come forward comprised of people on the housing waiting list who believe they can bring something to a co-operative housing living situation. The site has also recently received planning permission.

One young family, which has been provisionally allocated a property on the Carmarthen site, told us why they've got involved:

“We are living in temporary accommodation for the homeless. It’s not ideal but it’s a roof over our heads. We had so many issues in our last property that Environmental Health said it was unsafe for us to live in. Also, there’s no security when you rent privately. Landlords can tell you to move out at any time. The housing co-operative offers you the chance to live within a close knit community, you know everybody and have the security of housing. You’re in a house and you don’t get kicked out for no reason - it’s all a plus to us.”

This development is part of a wider initiative, led by Welsh Government, where several pilot projects are being developed to explore the use of co-operative models as an additional housing option.

Amongst the other lead pilot projects are developments with Seren, Cadwyn and a Community Land Trust in West Rhyl which North Wales Housing is working with.

The benefits of developing co-operative housing approaches are many. They help to fulfil the need to provide more affordable housing. They offer a community led approach so are often more sustainable in the long term than other approaches. Co-operative housing developments are largely self policing, and their approaches are democratic and based on fairness and equality. Co-operatives tend to work together to look after their communal areas and are often able to manage the maintenance or maintenance contracts on their homes.

There are several different approaches which can be taken up when a social landlord is developing co-operative housing. Ownership can be completely devolved to the co-operative, ownership can be based on a long-term lease to the co-operative, and the social landlord can stimulate co-operative approaches to the management and upkeep of the properties.

In 2014, the Welsh Government pledged to increase the supply of affordable homes to 10,000 before May 2016. Co-operative housing has the potential to make a sustainable contribution to that target and to offer a long term and sustainable approach to housing provision, as well as to the development of local communities.

You can read more about the Grŵp Gwalia scheme here. 

David Palmer, Co-operative Housing Project Manager
Wales Co-operative Centre

Vote for the Englishman from Porthcawl

As many of you will already know, I am standing for the role of Vice President for the Chartered Institute of Housing. Although this is a UK wide role (and beyond if you count our members in Hong Kong and Canada) there has not been a more important time to make sure that the Welsh voice is heard within the CIH.

So why should you vote for ‘an Englishman from Porthcawl’, as Mike Owen has called me?

As far as my CIH credentials go, they are about as good as you can get. I have been an active member of the Chartered Institute of Housing for over 30 years now and I am still as passionate about housing as the day I started my first job as an Area Housing Officer with Eastbourne Borough Council in 1984. Throughout my career I have been involved with the CIH: as a co-opted member of the South East Branch, as a committee member and Chair of the South West Branch, and as a CIH National Council member for six years.

As far as the Welsh bit goes, you’ll have to make your own mind up.

Since moving to Wales in 2008 I have served on the National Business Unit board and am currently Chair of CIH Cymru. Over the last couple of years the CIH has been restructuring and as Chair I was involved in ensuring that the National Business Units (the NBUs of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) were retained. I therefore have a very keen interest in making sure that the voice of the NBUs is not diminished going forward.

Working in Wales as one of the devolved nations, I fully understand that UK (or English) policies aren’t always relevant or applicable to the work we do and this is something that I would ensure was understood. The role of the NBUs in developing responses to UK and devolved legislation is crucial and I would champion the contribution that the three NBUs make to the CIH overall whilst also ensuring that the membership offer from CIH remains relevant and valuable to members in Wales (and Scotland and Northern Ireland).

I can’t pretend I am Welsh, but if I were to be successful in being elected Vice President I would do all I could to raise the profile of housing in Wales and the many brilliant things we do here.

And as a final point, it’s worth noting that we’ve not had a President of the CIH from Wales for many years now, not since the days of Mr Paul Diggory - although I am hoping that that won’t go against me!

Stephen Cook

Chief Executive of Valleys to Coast and Chair of CIH Cymru

Employment and Skills Week - housing is a rare case of economic growth

Five years ago, i2i launched the first Can Do Toolkit in response to demand from the housing sector for practical help to capture the power of housing investment for local people and communities. It wasn’t a new idea. In my TPAS Cymru days, I had the privilege to be shown the work of the Young Builders Trust who, in partnership with Cardiff Community HA, had set up a training and employment project for young people who were then able to move into the homes they had helped build and refurbish. Many other associations and local authorities have been involved in similar schemes over the years.

The difference now is that this approach is standard for most housing associations and local authority landlords across Wales. Our annual survey published in March showed that the housing sector, by adopting the i2i approach, had created 5,135 jobs and training opportunities - 1,365 every year. And this happened at a time when the Welsh economy has struggled with recession. Compare housing with the steel industry, a sector close to my heart as the proud son of a steelworker. Tata Steel employs just under 4,000 at its Port Talbot works and is the largest single site employer in Wales. In July, a further 400 redundancies were announced. The contrast with housing is evident both in terms of the numbers and the direction of travel – housing is a rare case of economic growth.

The other good news is that where housing has led the way, others are following. The recently launched Community Benefits Guide from Value Wales (you can obtain a copy from communitybenefits@wales.gov.uk) has adopted the Can Do Toolkit ‘double default’ approach, making targeted recruitment and training the first ‘ask’. Our motivation remains to make real and lasting differences to people's lives. In the words of my i2i colleague Gareth Jones, community benefits are:

‘a long term solution to bring employment, economic and social gain to disadvantaged populations to help break the cycle of poverty and promote equality and inclusion.’

This is a long haul, made worse by welfare reform, austerity and more looming public service cuts. What can’t be denied is that housing continues to lead the way in the most challenging of times. CHC and its members, local authorities, contractors, small businesses and communities themselves have contributed to this success and learnt huge amounts in the process. We deserve a collective pat on the back. And then we need to refocus and move on, build on what we’ve achieved and keep our eye on the prize of long term, economically vibrant communities across Wales.

Keith Edwards, Director
CIH Cymru

This week is Employment and Skills Week, run by the Community Housing Cymru Group in partnership with CIH Cymru and NIACE Cymru. 

'But what does a Policy Officer actually do?'

Imagine doing a job where your Mum thinks you work for the government, your younger brother thinks you go the pub with the First Minister, and your Gran asks whether you're able to get her a new house on the cheap. It doesn't get any easier when it comes to meeting new people either. Nobody knows what a policy officer does. They know we have meetings, and we like coffee, and it's verging on something political so they're not really interested anyway.

It's hardly the greatest stigma of our age, but policy types get a bad rap. Our colleagues in comms are always waiting on us, our friends in political parties think we're a bit boring, and our parents don’t have a clue what we do!

I'd worked in the Assembly, and on campaigns, and I'd flirted with a career in comms, so all these assumptions about the mysterious policy folk weren't new to me. Starting out at CHC, I was anxious not to become one of those 'bods'. Ten weeks on a Go Wales placement couldn't hurt though, could it? And how much could there really be to know about housing?

I very quickly learned that many of my assumptions were wrong. I found myself at CHC with lots of great people who were passionate and impatient for change. And, whisper it, the people in policy weren't boring either! Oh, and there really was quite a lot to learn about housing...

Three years in policy at CHC was an education. It was the trip to the House of Lords in my first week to campaign against the welfare reforms; it was the constant reminders about why we do this job as I heard the money advice team ask some of the toughest questions anyone will ever ask another person. It was successfully protecting the Supporting People budget last year, and wondering why my 'normal' friends weren't as excited as I was in the pub that night. It was becoming an overnight expert in devolution as we prepared to make radical calls to the Silk Commission. And it was the occasional campaign defeat too. And trying to understand the Lobbying Bill. And the Conservative MP who still replies to complain every time I use 'bedroom tax' in an email. And it was digesting the ever changing Welsh Government budget sheet – ‘what have they called social housing grant this year?!”

Policy was far from the boring drag I’d been told about; partly because working with the people at CHC meant even the longest strategy document or the driest task and finish group would turn out OK, and partly because I was representing a sector that really was about ‘more than bricks and mortar’. Over the course of three years, you can see that policy really can make a difference to people’s lives if we’re given the opportunity to channel it – it’s the basis of great projects and successful campaigns. It’ll change your political views and your outlook on life. But as I head off to my new policy role at NIACE, I’m still not sure my Mum knows exactly what I do…

Aaron Hill 

Aaron is leaving CHC after three years to work for NIACE Cymru as Policy and Public Affairs Officer. Good luck in your new role, you'll be missed! 

Prudent healthcare - a new approach

On a sunny afternoon in July 2013 we held our first Health & Housing conference – celebrating the 65th Birthday of the NHS. Housing associations have and continue to be vital partners of the health service. This year we broaden the scope and equally the message - health, housing and social care - doing the right thing at the right time.

It’s fair to say the last year has been a trying time for the NHS with high profile inquiries into standards of care, ambulances queuing outside hospital doors, and difficulties for most local health boards in balancing their books. On the flip side we've also seen an NHS that has taken action to change how services are delivered, engaged with political scrutiny on various areas of work and continued to deliver excellent levels of care to people in Wales.

That's not to paint over the cracks; there are clearly challenges around increasing demand and dwindling resources. Housing associations can and many are already helping to reduce this demand. The good news is that the links are simple, worryingly simple in fact, and as housing associations we need our health board colleagues to sit up and take notice when we say we can help with respite care, reducing delayed transfer of care and providing preventative services - which means people not turning up at their GP surgery, or their hospital A&E service.

At CHC we’ve worked with members to highlight the massive impact housing associations have on the health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities they work with. It really is about more than bricks and mortar. Housing associations have become experts at working closely with tenants, community regeneration and providing innovative care services.

Local health boards in Wales have taken advantage of these links in some areas as we highlight in the briefing launched at today's conference - Partnerships to deliver the NHS required now and in the future.

This publication doesn't pull any punches; it rightly doesn’t water down messages but highlights that there is highly positive work and projects taking place – but we can and must do more. As organisations and sectors, we serve people with multiple needs through a wide range of services and there are clearly opportunities to better coordinate how services are delivered by the right person at the right time.

Prudent Healthcare ushers in a new approach to providing healthcare which places the individual at the heart of service delivery, with responsibility on services to do only what is necessary and for individuals to take responsibility for their own health behaviours. In terms of the future of how health and housing work together, there should be no mistake that we are central to this approach - prudency is after all at the heart of what housing associations do.

Matt Kennedy
Policy Officer: Care, Support and Health 

Innovate, collaborate or die

The Young Foundation have been in Llandrindod Wells at Community Housing Cymru's One Big Housing UnConference. Whilst we are only part way through the 2 day event, there are already some interesting, exciting and rather worrying topics being debated (or not). Tony Colville, Senior Associate at the Young Foundation and our current lead in Wales, presents his thoughts so far.

It’s fair to say that the last 6 months of the Young Foundation’s exploration of the work carried out by housing associations in Wales has only filled us with hope, excitement and a desire to show our English partners how innovative you can be if you just think differently!

Yesterday was the first opportunity we had to speak with, hear from and engage with a broader range of housing associations and issues from across the sector. Along with my two colleagues, I’ve held some great conversations around the challenges of affordable and accessible community credit, the scaling up of time-credit schemes (see Spice for more information), and how you make best use of an umbrella organisation like Community Housing Cymru to collectively challenge the policies of Westminster that simply don’t work for rural communities here in Wales. I’ve had 7 organisations instantly book in follow up meetings to turn these conversations into ideas we can act on. But for every great conversation, I’ve had either an equally bad conversation or a conversation where the desire to challenge or push for innovation was simply non-existent. This is something we should all be concerned about.

The most frustrating parts of the day for me have been occasions in the discussion rooms where statements made or questions asked have received either flat responses or no response at all. I know there are innovative people at this event with ideas, expertise and passion. I have heard and seen first-hand some of the great ideas being developed. So why so little push for innovation, collaboration or challenge throughout today? Are we just being over-polite and not wanting to talk about the elephant in the room or is there a much bigger problem on the horizon?

Here are three big issues and my thoughts on how we ALL address them:

Challenge: How many statements have you heard today that you don’t agree with? How many questions have been asked that you think are just totally missing the point? Speak up, put your ideas and challenges out there. Through challenge we can start to innovate and build stronger alliances on issues we are passionate about. Use your umbrella body!

Personality: I’ve come across some fantastic personalities in my time here in Wales and the majority of them in the housing sector! If we are going to face a tough ride in the next few years then bring those personalities to the forefront of what you do and how you present it. Bring some energy to what you are doing and provoke, invite and engage us to agree, disagree and collaborate on the answers. I personally want to see more of the great private 1 to 1 conversations I’ve been having with you all shared in a bigger audience (you know who you are!)

Collaborate: The time of big building programmes is over. The time of large funds for social programmes is over. The time of not collaborating and working in silos is over. Start talking about your passions, your shared visions, your resource gaps, the things you have done that have worked, common geographies etc. and turn that talking into genuine collaboration. It shouldn’t be about competing for funding – it should be about maximising the resources, connections and expertise for the benefit of all your residents and communities.

The housing sector is in for a big fight over the next few years and it is inevitable that the landscape in 5 years’ time will be very different. Some of us won’t be here. Now is the opportunity to raise your voice, challenge yourself and challenge others. Innovate, collaborate or start getting ready to fail.

Tony Colville
Senior Associate, The Young Foundation

Linc participates in new Welsh Housing Finance Grant Scheme

Bronte House on Newport Road and Gwaun Helyg, Ebbw Vale are anticipated to be the first affordable housing projects to start on site and to be funded under the Welsh Government’s innovative Welsh Housing Finance Grant Scheme.


Bronte House, Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 1DJ

Linc acquired the Bronte site on the open market in May 2012 and proceeded to demolish the rather old and tired buildings and secure planning consent for a new affordable housing scheme in an area of very high demand. Bronte House will consist of 38 apartments with a mix of 16 one bed and 22 two bed units. The apartments will be targeted at people currently living in housing association and local authority accommodation who wish to downsize from accommodation that might now be too large for their needs. Rents will be set at intermediate rent levels. The total capital cost of the Bronte House scheme is £4.0 million. The contribution from the Welsh Housing Finance Grant is agreed at just under £1.0 million. The scheme will be developed to code level 3+ and the apartments will benefit from the latest efficient gas boilers which will result in very low running costs for tenants.

The project is ready to start on site with a contractor approved by the Linc Board. The Welsh Government has confirmed formal stage 3 approval and Linc has signed up for the collective private finance product. The Welsh Government has advised Linc that their revenue grant is likely to be available in November but is not yet in a position to confirm this. When confirmation is received, Linc will enter into a formal contract with the building contractor. Based on a December 2013 start on site, the scheme will be available for letting in the spring of 2015.



Gwaun Helyg, Ebbw Vale

Linc acquired this site from Corus in 2009. The Welsh Housing Finance Grant will fund the first phase of a larger planned affordable housing scheme. This first phase will consist of 13 family houses with a mix of 8 two bed and 5 three bed properties. The properties are to be let at social housing benchmark rents in partnership with Blaenau Gwent Council. The total capital cost of the Gwaun Helyg scheme is £2.0 million. The contribution from the Welsh Housing Finance Grant is agreed at £1.14 million. The scheme will be developed to code level 3+ and the properties will again benefit from the latest efficient gas boilers. The project is ready to start on site with a contractor approved by the Linc Board. The Welsh Government has confirmed formal stage 3 approval and Linc has signed up for the collective private finance product. Again, the Welsh Government has advised Linc that their revenue grant is likely to be available in November.

 

Did you attend the launch of the Welsh Housing Finance Grant last week? Do you have any thoughts on the new scheme?

Trevor Saunders
Executive Director, Linc Homes

Is service integration the cure for an ailing NHS?

This year marks the 65^th anniversary of the NHS in Wales and, despite being a hallmark of ‘Great Britain’, it is possibly facing the most challenging time in its entire history. With increasing demand for services, higher expectations and pressure to cut spending, finances couldn’t be any tighter. Or could they?    

Unscheduled care, in particular, is under extreme pressure as more and more people present a t A and E and choose to bypass GP out of hours surgeries.  Hospitals are also struggling to meet existing targets and delayed transfers of care and waiting list times continue to rise.  

Reconfiguration is one solution that’s being offered; however, it’s not just secondary care which is under pressure.  Patients in Wales come into contact with the NHS some 20 million times each year, with 80% of contacts taking place outside of a hospital. On average, people visit their GP seven times a year and we expect this to rise rapidly as welfare reform impacts on wellbeing with more people suffering from depression.  

So, put simply, finances could be and are likely to get tighter!  The good news is that housing associations and Care & Repair agencies can help.  Housing associations and Care & Repair agencies already work closely with social care partners to deliver critical services that contribute to prevention and re-enablement. They are also key players in supporting better community health and staff can be a key contact for older people living alone.    

The Older Persons Commissioner is passionate about ‘Older people wanting to stay safe, healthy and secure’ and that the key requirement for those returning home form hospital is ‘food in the refrigerator, a warm home and continuity of care.’ Housing associations already fulfil this role and they can and want to do more.  

Some housing associations also have their own dementia and extra care homes and provide specialist care and support throughout Welsh communities.  Others employ staff in hospices to reduce pressure on A and E by providing support to homeless people who are often repeat presenters at A and E. Despite this work, the role of housing associations is barely recognised in the new Health, Social Care and Wellbeing bill.
 

As the NHS grapples with how best to simultaneously cut costs, meet demand and improve services, more Local Health Boards have been developing projects with housing associations to provide more integrated/holistic services focused on the needs of the individual. While this might not be a total cure, results so far show that it certainly drives improvement.

We will be celebrating some of these projects during Health & Housing week from 15-19 July and we’re inviting you to engage in this week. Tell us your story, either as a service provide or as a customer, about how integrated services across housing and health have helped you! 

Amanda Oliver
Head of Policy and Research, CHC 

Think differently, do differently!

We love our quotes in CHC. My quote of the moment is from Albert Einstein: 'A sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'

In CHC, we’re taking this on board. We’re embarking on our first European funded project, Building Enterprise, which sees us leading on a project that will provide support for our members and other social enterprises with the ambition of ensuring that more services and products for the sector are delivered and supplied from social enterprises.

This project was a long time coming, but it’s come at a good time. When we consulted with our members last year, doing more to support the wider regeneration activities our members are embarking on was top of the agenda, along with continuing our lobbying activities. Since hearing that message, we’ve made many changes. We’ve created a Housing-led Regeneration Network supported by a newly created Regeneration Officer post which integrates the programme of work between CHC and CREW. We’re also leading on a project which will provide individual support but will also ensure that the sector can engage, share and learn. So when you’re thinking about what CHC does and that we’re moving into new territory, just remember that we’re thinking differently and doing differently which ensures that we’re well equipped to support the sector which is doing the same.

We're currently recruiting members for the Building Enterprise project steering group - please click here for further information.


Sioned Hughes
Director of Policy and Regeneration, CHC

Building a better Wales

I’ve always seen housing as more than just bricks and mortar. Quality homes are essential in ensuring that people are able to enjoy home life and play an active part in their local community. My short time as Minister for Housing and Regeneration has reaffirmed this in my mind.

Since taking on the new portfolio, I have seen first hand how Welsh Government investment through schemes such as Social Housing Grant and Houses into Homes are making a real difference to the people and communities of Wales. I am delighted that we have recently been able to commit further funding to support these vital projects.

I’ve also visited a number of housing and regeneration projects in places as diverse as Barry and Anglesey and have been impressed to see what can be achieved when the Welsh Government and key partners work together. In these difficult economic times, it is essential that we make the most of capital investment, not only to build much needed homes, but also to continue to support our construction industry and the economy.

I’m confident that housing can provide a catalyst for the Welsh economy. However, I am concerned about the current economic crisis and the negative impact of the UK Government's welfare reform agenda on people who can least afford it, as well as on housing organisations. What austerity and welfare reform don’t change is that everyone in Wales deserves a good quality, affordable and safe place to live. That should be what everyone involved with housing in Wales strives to achieve.

Carl Sargeant AM
Minister for Housing and Regeneration

No place like your own home

Older people tell us they prefer to live independently in their own homes and communities, and we aim to make this a reality for as many as we can. Some important Welsh Government policies have similar ambitions. Together for Health recognises the need to change how NHS services are delivered to an ageing society, providing more preventative services, closer to home. The Social Services and Wellbeing Bill proposes more preventative services and closer working between Health and LAs. There is no doubt that greater integration between health and social care is essential if Wales is to deliver effective services that reduce the impact of high levels of chronic ill-health in an ageing population.

And yet, the role of housing in this is too often forgotten. Good quality, safe, accessible housing is an important part of a more integrated system, and can improve health and social care outcomes, while delivering cost savings. The challenge for housing organisations is to make sure that those who develop policy and commission health and social care services are well informed about the role that housing can play in improving older people's health and producing savings across an increasingly stretched health and social care system.

Some examples... Extra care housing, designed to meet the needs of residents by offering care and support on site and on call, has been shown to improve health and wellbeing for older people, while delivering cost-effective support outside of residential care. Services that improve home energy efficiency and help older people to afford to pay their fuel bills reduce demand by avoiding A&E visits and emergency hospital admissions. Given the scandalous 1,700 annual extra winter deaths, and many thousands more winter admissions, it is crucial that we make clinical commissioners fully aware of the threat of cold homes to our older people. We must also convince them of the return on investment that services like Care & Repair and adaptations can provide. Last year in England saw a huge breakthrough on this front with the Department of Health announcing an additional £40 million for Disabled Facilities Grants. This is a first in terms of significant health investment into housing adaptations. Care & Repair Cymru urges the Welsh Government to take similar steps by diverting relatively small amounts of Health capital funding to the highly successful Rapid Response Adaptations and Independent Living Grant programmes, both of which are more cost effective and quicker than Disabled Facilities Grants.

We also need greater housing input into safe hospital discharge plans. Each local health system should have budgets to allow swift housing adaptations to support recovery and rehabilitation at home, reducing the cost of delayed discharges or readmission. The same is true for the growing number of people with dementia; relying purely on hospital provision to meet their needs is undesirable for those affected and also impossible for the taxpayer. Conversely, greater investment in telehealth, assistive technology and low-level interventions can help people with dementia stay in their own homes in a cost effective way.

The case is clear. Housing needs to be part of an integrated architecture of building healthier communities tailored around someone at home. At a strategic level, housing must be aligned more effectively with health and social care policy. Operationally, housing services, including Care & Repair, must be better networked within local health and social care economies. In this way, we can really begin to plan and deliver the health, social care and support that people aspire to in their own homes and neighbourhoods.

Chris Jones, Chief Executive
Care & Repair Cymru