Our first ever Housing Bill and a minister who has made building new homes his number one priority make 2014 a critical year for housing, says Keith Edwards
IT MIGHT BE TEMPTING to see the Housing (Wales) Bill as a collecting box for a disparate range of ideas and interventions. That would be a mistake. To appreciate how it all hangs together we need to consider two things.
Firstly, Welsh Government buys into the ‘one housing system’ approach, long advocated by CIH Cymru, where all sectors have a part to play in delivery. The provisions of the Bill will impact on local authorities, private landlords, housing associations and support providers – both in terms of direct provisions and the implications for partnership working.
Secondly, making law is only one function of government. It also has responsibility to co-ordinate actions and ensure delivery by direct funding, encouraging innovation, including partners in decision making and where necessary using powers to regulate and intervene. For example, the proposals to legislate to allow councils to charge additional council tax on empty properties stand alongside the trailblazing Houses into Homes recyclable loan scheme and the partnership working with local authorities and housing associations across Wales that underpins it. All of this has to come together to achieve the desired outcomes of making the best use of our houses and regenerating communities.
CIH Cymru welcomed the bill as ‘government for grown-ups’. What we meant was that even before considering the detail, this is a significant milestone in building our capacity – and as importantly our confidence – to deliver housing solutions fashioned in Wales. In the past we had to wait in a legislative queue to get things tagged on to England and Wales Bills or go through the equally tortuous legislative competence order (LCO) process. Either way it felt like waiting for approval from more powerful superiors.
Having powers is one thing – using them to good affect another. Carl Sargeant has been very clear about the outcomes Welsh Government wants to see: more homes, better homes and better services. So where do the provisions of the bill fit in?
Regulation of private rented housing
Former minister Huw Lewis said that improving quality and growing the sector should go hand in hand. Landlord bodies may still need convincing on the scope of the proposals but if we get this right then Wales could lead the way in modernising a sector that often struggles with its reputation and at the same time help it play an expanding role in delivering housing options.
Homelessness
No one involved in tackling homelessness argues against concentrating more on prevention and therefore avoid having to pick the pieces when it happens to people and families. In no other area will it be as essential for all partners to work together. There are concerns – from politicians and practitioners – about proposals to amend the priority need status of former prisoners. There is no ducking the resource issue if we are to end family homelessness and protect the most vulnerable.
Gypsies and Travellers
The Bill correctly states that more should be done to meet the needs of Gypsies and Travellers and local authorities will have to follow up with action where need exists.
Standards for social housing
The requirement to achieve Welsh Housing Quality Standard has been in place since 2002. CIH Cymru firmly holds the view that the new 2020 deadline has to be non- negotiable. The opportunity supported by i2i to harness investment to regenerate communities and create local jobs is fundamental to this being a success.
Housing finance
CIH played a supporting role in securing the financial settlement that will through the provisions of the Bill lead to abolition of the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system. It will be replaced with a new self-financing system that will allow each local authority in Wales to retain all of its rental income locally. This will provide local authorities with the flexibility to do more to improve the quality of their existing housing stock and to build significant numbers of new homes for the first time in decades.
Mutual housing
The legislation will allow fully mutual housing co-operatives to grant assured and assured shorthold tenancies and make it easier to obtain finance for developments as it will provide additional security to lenders. CIH Cymru has welcomed the extension of the co-op sector as an important part of delivering new homes and building in high standards of accountability.
Council tax
Local authorities will be allowed to charge a flat 150 per cent of the standard council tax charge on properties that are empty for 12 months or longer. We welcome this as a part of a suite of measure to address the problem particularly but not exclusively in rural areas.
WHILST THERE IS consensus on many of the overall objectives, disagreements on details are already emerging between political parties. That said, there is scope to build on the excellent work of the Cross Party Housing Group particularly if we keep the focus on the three underpinning objectives: more homes, better homes and better services.
The policy underpinning the Bill was outlined in the minister’s housing statement in the summer. Increasing supply was and remains the biggest priority. Welsh Government is course to achieve the target of 7,500 affordable homes and bring 5,000 empty properties back into use. However there is an ambition to go beyond current targets for affordable housing as well as encouraging the private sector to build new homes. Robin Staines, director of housing at Carmarthenshire County Council, is heading up a task force to look at the barriers to development focussing on three
things: the potential for local authorities to build homes; open market housing development; and affordable housing development. CIH Cymru particularly welcomes the strongest commitment yet to supporting councils to build again after decades of being effectively frozen out of delivery.
In November the Minister launched Help to Buy Wales which, although based on the English model, had a number of distinguishing features – a lower ceiling on the maximum value of the home purchased, for example. Perhaps most importantly it is seen as part of a suite of interventions across the housing system – home ownership may be important but it is not the only game in town. The minister has listened to warnings that simply increasing demand will push prices up and lead to a house price bubble.
The ability of Wales to fashion effective policy is of course still constrained by the limits of powers devolved to Welsh Government. CIH Cymru has welcomed the proposals of the Silk Commission and accepted by the UK Government that stamp duty land tax should be devolved to the Welsh Government.
CIH Cymru has concluded that the momentum to fashion a joined-up housing system continues to grow. Of course the still present spectre of austerity, the vicious impact of changes such as the bedroom tax, and the particular problems of higher than average poverty and worklessness levels, will make the next few years difficult ones in which to make progress. We are however on the cusp of potentially seismic changes with the opportunity to join up the first housing laws crafted in Wales with the politics and practice of divergence.
This is another opportunity to deliver excellence in small country politics and governance, distinct from – and yes, potentially better than – what’s happening elsewhere. It will certainly be more suited to our needs, circumstances and aspirations. 2014 could well be the jumping off point for a truly joined-up, new housing system in Wales.
Keith Edwards is director of CIH Cymru