Bucking the trend
If you add the planned spend by stock transfer RSLs and local authorities to the proposed social housing grant programme, a staggering £500 million pounds plus will be spent on improving existing social housing and building more affordable homes in 2009 / 2010 in Wales.{mosimage}
That level of expenditure hasn't been seen since the post-war years and the fact that it's occurring during the most severe economic downturn in at least a generation is even more remarkable.
Part of this is down to the fact that Wales has been a much slower starter in delivering major improvements to council housing. In England much of the Decent Homes Programme has already been accomplished. In Wales, although only a handful of landlords are confident of completing the £3billion Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) programme by the 2012 deadline, investment is set to rise sharply in 2009 and continue at these levels at least for the next five years.
The requirement for all local authorities and RSLs to ensure their housing reached WHQS and to maintain it over 30 years was first laid down in the national housing strategy Better Homes for People in Wales in 2002. Until recently there was little thirst for stock transfer as a means of improving stock condition. There has been a sea change over the past three years for a number of reasons. Firstly, the hopes of persuading the UK Government to either provide more funds to councils or allow them to borrow have been successively dashed. Secondly, the shortfall between what councils had available and the resources needed reached staggering amounts - in total £7billion to reach and maintain the stock over 30 years. Thirdly, the emergence of new RSL models has helped convince council and tenants that transfer landlords can have a high degree of community ownership and control. Finally, a number of local authorities have developed innovative ways of securing investment and retaining their stock.
A report launched in March 2008 jointly by the Welsh Assembly housing and regeneration ministers (WHQS plus: Maximizing the benefits of housing investment) concluded that there were significant opportunities emerging to reap long-term benefits. This concept of WHQS plus is gaining currency across Wales, with most of the eight transfer RSLs and a number of retention local authorities signed up to the twin aims of community control and ownership of housing, and local, estate level jobs and regeneration.
What does this mean on the ground? A growing number of organisations are delivering unprecedented levels of investment and securing community regeneration on the back of this. RCT Homes will spend nearly £200 million by 2012 and has already created almost 200 new jobs, either directly, through contractors or by direct negotiation with suppliers.
Bron Afon Community Housing will spend similar amounts and is funding 60 apprenticeships as well as creating over 50 new internal jobs. Carmarthenshire County Council will deliver WHQS and retain ownership thanks to a quarter of a billion pounds of new investment by 2014, delivered largely through local and regional SMEs. Cartefi Conwy the first transfer RSL in North Wales will spend a quarter of a billion over 30 years on 3,800 properties. It is promising targeted recruitment and training into its procurement processes.
The drivers behind WHQS plus have intensified in recent months; the need to maximise community regeneration benefits has become more pressing on the back of the economic downturn; the desire to create jobs and training for local people has been given fresh impetus through the imminent investment programmes of the next wave of stock transfer RSLs, together with a number of retention authorities. The character and direction of social housing, including issues of community regeneration and the nature of RSLs in the future have emerged as key issues from the Essex Review of affordable housing.
