Welsh Government Housing Research
The following research projects are underway:
- An evaluation of homelessness services available to young people leaving the secure estate was published on July 10. It aims to understand the early impacts of legislation on young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness as they approach their release.
- A review of the social housing rent policy in Wales is exploring whether the current rent policy is fit for purpose and achieves its original objectives.
- A project exploring the issue of social housing evictions will seek to gather data on rates and reasons for evictions, as well as an understanding of the processes social landlords have put in place to support tenants in avoiding eviction.
- A review of priority need in Wales is underway. This will review the current implementation of priority need, but also explore potential options for change. The impact of each option on local authorities, housing providers, the third sector and of course those accessing housing support will be assessed.
- A research project into the sale and use of leaseholds in Wales has recently been commissioned and will identify and explore leaseholders’ experiences of purchasing and living in a leasehold property.
- A project to understand local authority funding for learning disability housing support has recently been commissioned. The project will seek to understand how the support is structured across Wales; what are the differences in the levels of learning disability housing support funding; and the reasons why there are differences in the levels of learning disability housing support funding.
All housing research reports can be found at gov.wales/research
Housing Conditions Evidence Programme
Welsh Housing Condition Survey 2017-18 (WHCS)
Since publishing the headline results from the Welsh Housing Conditions Survey (WHCS) 2017-18, two further reports have now been published:
- Assessment of elements of the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS)
- Fuel poverty estimates for Wales (headline results) 2018
A more detailed report on fuel poverty estimates will be available in the summer and further topic specific reports from the WHCS will follow throughout the year.
WHQS data has been added to the results viewer on our webpages, which will be further expanded as more analysis is completed.
The non-disclosive set of the WHCS data will be available on the UK Data Archive soon, with more detailed data available direct from the WHCS team, under special licence.
Housing Stock Analytical Resource for Wales (HSAR)
After building a proof-of-concept version of HSAR in 2018, the autumn saw work being scaled back to focus on analysing the Welsh Housing Conditions Survey results. Work on HSAR has now resumed and we are working with Welsh Government’s Administrative Data Research Unit to provide ONS with business cases for sharing relevant data under the Digital Economy Act. These datasets include HMRC, DWP and VOA data. Existing HSAR data will be migrated to the long-term hosting solution (a UK Secure e-Research Platform) in the coming months and we will be looking to add information about energy consumption, smart meters and prepayment meters and engaging with social housing providers with a view to accessing their stock management data.
Housing statistics
Upcoming publications
- Social Landlord Housing Stock and Rents 2018-19 (annual release) – 8 August
- New House Building, April to June 2019 (headline) – 12 September
- Homelessness, April to June 2019 (headline) – 26 September
- Welsh Housing quality Standard, 2018-19 (annual release) – 3 October
- Affordable Housing provision, 2018-19 (annual release) – 17 October
- Help to Buy-Wales, July to September 2019 (headline) -24 October
All releases are available from www.wales.gov.uk/statistics
Cross-Government Housing Statistics Group
The Cross-Government Housing Statistics Group (CGHSG) has published its new 2019-20 work plan.
Homelessness
A project is currently being undertaken by Dr Ian Thomas (Cardiff University) into the feasibility of introducing individual level data collection, reporting and analysis in relation to statutory homelessness in Wales. The project is part funded by Welsh Government and by the CaCHE. The initial report of findings is due in Summer 2019.
Estimates of housing need and demand
In January 2019, the Welsh Government published a statistical article on Estimates of housing need in Wales at a national and regional level (2018 based).
On 5 June, the Welsh Government published a second statistical article splitting the estimates of housing need into two housing tenures:
- Market housing (owner occupier and private rented sector)
- Affordable housing (intermediate and social rents).
The figures presented in this article are an estimate of the need for additional housing units by tenure given a set of assumptions. The tenure split has only been produced for the first five years of estimates (2018/19 to 2022/23).
Housing Information Group (HIG)
The next HIG meeting will be held on Thursday 26 September 2019, 13:30 to 16:00 in Welsh Government Offices Cathays Park. The theme and agenda will be announced shortly by KASevents.