The latest news from the Welsh Government Knowledge and Analytical Services team.
Welsh Government Housing Research
The following research projects are underway:
- A Review of Priority Need in Wales. 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. The project will identify and explore leaseholders’ experiences of purchasing and living in a leasehold property.
- A project to understand Tenant’s Views and Experiences of the Private Rented Sector. This focuses on the use of Section 173 within the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and specifically the minimum notice period of two months which landlords use in the case of a ‘no fault’ eviction.
- A scoping project into the Decarbonisation of Existing Social Housing has recently been commissioned. The project will look to understand the current practice amongst selected social landlords in relation to improving energy efficiency of their existing housing stock, focused on archetypes and ‘optimised retrofit.’
- A Spending Analysis of Aids and Adaptations in Wales has recently begun. The aim of the project is to understand if and how the current system of adaptations reflects need, provides a quality service to users and value for money for taxpayers.
All housing research reports can be found at gov.wales/research
Housing Conditions Evidence Programme
Welsh Housing Condition Survey 2017-18 (WHCS)
In May we published the 2018 Headline Fuel Poverty estimates for Wales. The purpose of this report was to get the headline figures into the public domain and in use as soon as possible, given that the previous full estimates were published in 2010 and were based on the Living in Wales Property Survey 2008. At the end of August we published detailed analysis of the 2018 Fuel Poverty estimates for Wales.
In September we published the Energy Efficiency of Dwellings report and associated tables.
Work to make the non-disclosive set of WHCS data available on the UK Data Archive is ongoing, with more detailed data available direct from the WHCS team, under special licence.
Housing Stock Analytical Resource for Wales (HSAR)
We are working with Welsh Government’s Administrative Data Research Unit to provide the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with business cases for sharing relevant data under the Digital Economy Act. Existing HSAR data will be migrated to the long-term hosting solution (a UK secure e-research platform) in the coming months. An agreement is in place with Swansea University for this platform and there will be a large focus of creating our own governance structures surrounding this. We will be looking to add information about energy consumption, smart meters and prepayment meters from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and engaging with social housing providers with a view to accessing their stock management data.
Housing Statistics
Recent Publications
All releases are available from www.wales.gov.uk/statistics
- Help to Buy-Wales, July to September 2019 (headline)
- Affordable Housing provision, 2018-19 (annual release)
- New House Building, July to September 2019 – (Headline)
- Homelessness, July to September 2019 (headline)
- Housing Demolitions 2018-19 (annual headline)
- Housing Hazards and Licenses 2018-19
Upcoming publications
- Help to Buy Wales October to December 2019 (Headline) – 23 January
- Rough Sleeper Count 2019 (Annual Release) – 4 February
- Social Housing Vacancies, Lettings and Arrears, 2018-19 (annual release) – 4 March
- New House Building, October to December 2019 (Headline) – 5 March
- Homelessness, October – December 2019 (Headline) 19 March.
Housing Information Group (HIG)
The HIG annual seminar will be held on 30 January on the topic Health and Housing.
Estimates of housing need and demand
Work is being undertaken to consider the Housing Need recommendations within the Independent Review of Affordable Housing Supply.
On 21 November, around 50 local authority staff attended a workshop in mid-Wales. The purpose of this workshop was to update local authorities on recent work (including the publication of housing need estimates at regional level), as well as seek feedback and thoughts on the current Local Housing Market Assessment (LHMA) processes, data sets and limitations associated with producing LHMAs.
Updated estimates of additional housing need (2019-based) are due to be published in February 2020.
Cross-government housing statistics work
On 17 September, ONS published four cross-UK government products (analytical article, interactive tool, article describing improvement initiatives and a blog) relating to homelessness and rough sleeper statistics. These publications form part of a cross-government project to improve the coherence of statistics produced on homelessness across the UK. The products can be accessed at blog.ons.gov.uk/2019/09/17/the-emerging-picture-of-uk-homelessness-and-rough-sleeping/.
On 6 November 2019, ONS published two reports on affordable housing statistics as part of a UK wide programme of work to improve housing and planning statistics:
- Comparing affordable housing in the UK, an article making cross-UK comparisons of affordable housing statistics
- Affordable Housing Statistics in the UK, a review of definitions, terminology and the feasibility of harmonising affordable housing statistical definitions.
Feedback is sought on the homeless and affordable housing products – please send comments to gsshelp@statistics.gov.uk.