We launched our Housing Horizons project at last year’s annual conference and started by posing a big question to housing associations across Wales.
Over the next 20 years, what difference will you make?
There is no doubt that housing associations play a major role in supporting people and places to become the best they can be, both now and in the future. In 2016/17 alone, our members directly spent over £1 billion with 84 per cent ploughed into the Welsh economy.
However, in response to this big question, another one emerged.
What if good housing was seen as a basic right for all in Wales? What if housing was genuinely seen as the starting point for successful lives and successful places, and public money was spent accordingly and key decisions made around housing to help achieve this?
This question led us to our final vision which we launched at our annual conference last month- a Wales where good housing is a basic right for all.
We know that good housing makes a difference to everyone. If good housing was a basic right for all, people would be healthier, more prosperous and more connected. Housing associations in Wales have a big ambition to meet this basic right, and our members have a strong track record of building, investing and reinvesting.
Ten years ago, the Essex Review laid the foundations for the housing association sector we now know, and for housing to be firmly established as political priority in Wales. However, we want to see even more ambition, improved partnership working and recognition that affordable housing is the key to prosperity so that housing associations can do even more to tackle Wales’ housing crisis and add value to Welsh communities.
It’s crucial that we establish the most effective policy environment to create a solid foundation for current and future generations, and this is why we’re calling for a review of affordable housing policy in Wales alongside the launch of our vision.
We’re laying down a challenge to housing associations and our partners across the public, private and third sectors to work with us to achieve this vision. We can’t do this alone, and we want to work with everyone who supports our vision to ensure that good housing is a basic right for all in Wales by 2036.
Find out more about the vision’s specific commitments on our website: chcymru.org.uk/en/housing-horizons/