The latest news from the Welsh Government Knowledge and Analytical Services team.
Welsh Government Housing Research
The following research projects are underway:
- An evaluation of homelessness interventions in Wales to support homelessness services transformation is coming to an end. This research will build the evidence base across homelessness prevention and intervention.
- Research with residents of multi-occupied buildings is underway. It will involve gathering evidence on the experiences of residents with regards to their knowledge and engagement in building safety to provide recommendations on what effective engagement on building safety could look like.
- An evaluation of Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 is underway. This research will evaluate the newly implemented Act by looking at tenant, landlord and stakeholder views and experiences and is now going into its second phase.
- Leasing Scheme Wales evaluation is underway. This research will be evaluating the programme, looking at the experiences of tenants, landlords and local authorities. It will also gather information on the demographics of who is using the scheme (tenants and landlords).
- Innovative Housing: Year 2 Construction Lessons Learned is underway. This research will identify the key lessons learned in relation to construction from projects funded in the second year of the innovative housing programme.
- Empty Buildings in Town Centres and Small Businesses is beginning. This research will identify how small businesses currently source premises in town centres and how this can be improved.
- Social Housing Allocations, Pan-Wales Research has just begun. This research is looking at the social housing allocations process in local authorities and registered social landlords across Wales. It aims to identify differences in the processes used, as well as any potential gaps in provision.
All housing research reports can be found at: gov.wales/research.
Second homes
We published information on the number and rate of council tax chargeable second homes by Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) from local authority council tax billing data. This information relates to March 2023 and can be viewed on Data Map Wales:
- Number of council tax chargeable second homes by middle layer super output area (MSOA), March 2023 | DataMapWales (gov. wales)
- Number of second homes per 1,000 council tax chargeable homes by middle layer super output area (MSOA), March 2023 | DataMapWales (gov. wales)
The data can also be viewed in an ad-hoc statistical requests table:
Please contact us via the stats.housingconditions@gov.wales mailbox with any queries or requests.
Housing conditions and fuel poverty
DLUHC have published the latest quarterly statistical release on Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates (EPC) for Quarter 3 (July to September) 2023, which presents information about certificates on the energy efficiency of buildings in England and Wales.
And ONS has published the latest annual statistical release on Energy efficiency of housing in England and Wales: 2023.
As a branch, we have welcomed a new member of staff to the team who will be working on the Welsh Housing Quality Standard 2023 and fuel poverty estimates.
Please contact us via the stats.housingconditions@gov.wales mailbox with any queries or requests.
Housing statistics
Monthly management information on homelessness accommodation provision and rough sleeping continues to be published, with roughly a two month time lag. Following user feedback, for October data onwards we will be publishing data on the number of homeless individuals in temporary accommodation at the end of the month, by local authority as well as by accommodation type. This change will take place in January 2024.
Since the last update, the following regular housing statistics outputs have been published:
- Dwelling stock estimates: as at 31 March 2022 (published 7 September)
- Homelessness: April 2022 to March 2023 (published 5 September)
- Help to Buy – Wales (Shared Equity Loan Scheme): April to June 2023 and July to September 2023 (published 14 September and 23 November)
- National well-being indicators (published 29 September)
- Social landlord housing stock and rents: as at 31 March 2023 (published 24 October)
- New house building: April to June 2023 (published 26 October)
- Affordable housing provision: April 2022 to March 2023 (published 7 November)
The Office for National Statistics is currently redeveloping its private housing rental price statistics, which it expects to be used in their measurement of consumer prices from 2024. On 1 December published impact analysis, and in January will be hosting user events where it will explore rental housing data in more detail.
Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics continue to publish monthly UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry) data for Wales and the rest of the UK.
Please contact us via the stats.housing@gov.wales mailbox with any queries or requests.
Housing Information Group
The last meeting of the Housing Information Group took place 28 September. The agenda, papers and minutes can be found on the Welsh Government website.