The Winter issue of WHQ is out now. The print magazine will reach readers and articles will go the website in the next few days.
Our focus this time is on housing and older people, a subject of vital importance across Wales yet one that is still not getting enough attention, especially at a UK level.
Setting the scene, Older People’s Commissioner Heléna Herklots explains the role that housing can play in making Wales the best country in the world to grow older, while Jeremy Porteus examines the evidence on housing provision for older people.
Turning to housing management, Rebecca Mollart and Chris Thomas consider what housing providers can do to support LGBT+ older people in sheltered housing. Angela Stacey explains how Trivallis went about refurbishing its outdated social housing. And Richard Sheahan looks at how assistive technology is helping older people in extra care and sheltered housing in Blaenau Gwent.
In terms of policy, David Robinson says the priorities for an age-friendly housing policy are clear but his research in one area of Northern England that shows the gap between them and the on-the-ground realities. And Paula Broadbent argues that we need to shift the focus to ‘right-sizing’ in new developments.
We also hear from Chris Jones on the vital services that Care and Repair Cymru provides for older people in Wales and from Bill Rowlands on how a new project to help people with dementia is taking off in Cwm Taf.
Also top of the agenda in this issue is the key subject of evictions from social housing. ClwydAlyn has committed not to evict anyone into homelessness and set a longer-term goal of zero evictions overall. Clare Budden explains how it’s working so far.
Related to that, Jenny Preece looks more generally at how and why people are excluded from housing in a survey of the evidence on the structural, individual and institutional mechanisms that lie behind exclusion.
Evictions are one of the key issues that will need to be tackled in the wake of the five-year rent settlement announced by Welsh Government. Another is how landlords can carry out tenant satisfaction surveys and David Wilton has some ideas on that.
With the latest news from the Regulatory Board for Wales, and details of the project to develop a new approach on housing association governance, we hope this issue will be essential reading for anyone working in, or interested in housing.
For a taster of what’s in this issue, look out on the website in the next few days. Full access to the issue, plus the full archive of previous articles, is available to subscribers only. For more details on that, and to secure your print copy of WHQ, find out more details of how to subscribe here.