By Tamsin Stirling and Keith Edwards, HQN Cymru Lead Associate.

The last two months have seen exciting announcements for housing in Wales.

In November 2021, the co-operation agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru was published.

It includes commitments on a right to adequate housing, rent control and action on second homes and building safety, the establishment of a national construction company, and reform of homelessness law.

This was followed in December 2021 by the publication of the draft budget for 2022-23 and indicative budgets for the following two years.

Good news for housing with increased capital for building social housing and decarbonising existing homes; increased revenue for homelessness prevention; and sums allocated to support the commitments in the co-operation agreement.

But alongside this good news come continuing pressures for organisations, communities, and individuals. The impact of inflation, supply chain issues, and labour shortages are all increasing competition for organisational and household budgets.

Anecdotes of tenants being told that they’ll have to wait longer for planned maintenance because of the need to invest in decarbonisation bring these pressures into sharp relief.

The context of greater priority for housing alongside increasing pressure on budgets makes it even more important that tenants’ voices are firmly in the mix when it comes to decision-making at national and local levels.

We cannot carry on making crucial decisions that impact on tenants’ lives without their voices being heard. From future rents and service charges to agreeing how money is to be spent, assuming we know best simply isn’t good enough.

We need robust input and challenge from tenants now, not just because it’s the fair thing to do but because it’ll also lead to far better decisions and outcomes.

We’ve called before for action to address the current deficit in decision/policy making at a national level in Wales through the establishment of an independent tenant-led body.

The starting point should be the commissioning of an independent feasibility study by the Welsh Government to find out how tenants want their voices to be heard at the national level with a commitment to act on the outcomes.

The best time to do this was before major recent decisions on housing policy and investment. The second-best time is now. As disability rights activists first said, ‘not about us without us’ should be the way we do things in housing in Wales from now on.

 

Tamsin Stirling is a freelance consultant and a former special adviser to a previous Housing Minister. Keith Edwards is lead associate for HQN Cymru a former director of TPAS Cymru.

Hearing the residents voice will be a key focus of the virtual HQN Can Do Cymru Annual Conference on 17 February 2022.