Community Housing Cymru

Key social housing news from Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government's 2025/26 draft budget: 🟢 Additional £21m for the Housing Support Grant to fund vital homelessness and housing support services 🟢 Additional £81m in capital funding to help social housing providers progress on building homes at pace Our response? Read it in full at the link below

Protecting last year's investment in key social housing funds, and responding to inflationary increases need to be baseline investments in Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government's draft budget for 2025/26. Without these commitments, Wales will struggle to find its way out of the housing and cost of living crises that are still deeply impacting people. Read our Finance Committee consultation response for more on the grants we think should be prioritised, and what a lack of funding would mean for Wales's not-for-profit housing associations - link in comments 🔗

👉 What is the route out of poverty for Wales? For housing associations, resilience in the face of hardship starts at community level. However with Welsh poverty levels remaining stagnant for the last decade, it couldn’t be clearer that we need a new approach. Our new research highlights how housing associations already play a central role in tackling poverty. They do this through: > supporting tenants into employment and education opportunities  > building and maintaining safe, warm, energy efficient homes  > delivering a wide-range of health and wellbeing initiatives But they can’t fix the problem alone. So what should the ultimate long-term plan be to get us out of the crisis? Find out in our new research report 🔗 Links in comments to: Report in full; CHC blog - New research: Housing associations’ work to shift the dial and alleviate poverty in communities across Wales.

Looking back at November and the Community Housing Cymru Annual Conference #CHCAnnual24 held at Techniquest in Cardiff Bay. Two days packed with insightful speakers, practical workshops and engaged delegates, the conference was a pleasure to chair. Keeping social housing in the spotlight, the current political and economic trends and their impact on the sector together with compassionate leadership were just some of the themes this year. The agenda tackled both the challenges and shared best practice with a focus on collaboration and partnerships within the sector to bring change for communities. I’m grateful to the team for sharing some of the photos and for working with them again towards a smooth running and engaging conference. #socialhousing #homes #tenants #housing #housingassociations #communities #conferencechair #facilitator #MC #events #freelance #paneldiscussions

What a fantastic place to host the Community Housing Cymru Annual Conference last week - Techniquest aims to "inspire people from all kinds of backgrounds" and "encourage curiosity" - perfect aspirations for an event that brought the sector together! Expertly chaired by Sian Lloyd LLB Day 1 of the event included: 🏚️ Stuart Ropke setting the scene, highlighting the importance of keeping social housing in focus; progressing despite uncertainty and the need to not only deliver new homes but to protect investment in existing homes - providing a safe, warm, affordable home with support services to ensure everyone can live well. 🪴 Jayne Bryant MS - Newport West setting out her position on the importance of (i) social justice, (ii) focusing on the most vulnerable in society with homelessness being the top priority (prevention, early intervention and rapid rehousing) and (iii) the pivotal role the sector has to reduce poverty and help drive economic growth. 👏 Congratulating graduates from Pathway to Board (half of whom have already secured board positions). 📽️ Investigative journalist, Daniel Hewitt, reporting from the front line of the housing crisis highlighting how much is left to be done to ensure everyone has a safe place to live in, with hard hitting footage that really hit home. https://lnkd.in/efYpbxmP 🏚️ A lively panel discussion (Nerys Evans, James Williams of Wales Cast and Joe Waters) on Welsh politics. All eyes are on 2026 - it seems we are to expect turbulence over the next few months. Questions arose as to (i) whether the much needed focus on reducing NHS waiting lists will crowd out housing, (ii) what to expect from the budget, (iii) whether there would be clarity on planning and net zero and (iv) the effect of increased NI contributions. 🏚️ Joy Kent and Nicola Evans disseminating their findings on the sector's contribution to the Welsh Government's ambition to become the world's first Nation of Sanctuary and the recommendations that can lead from "homelessness to belonging". 🪴 Joanne Oak and Claire Snook explaining how the "Growth for Good" and "Flourish and Thrive" projects utilise green spaces to grow food and to capture carbon. 💷 Stephen Valvona, Michael Brooks ACA, Richard Whittaker and James Tarrant discussing how the sector can access additional / alteranative funding. 🏗️ Keynote speaker James Bailey exploring the challenges public sector organisations face in rebuilding trust, with personal experience of the sector enhancing his delivery. 🗣️ Catching up with familiar faces (including Joy Kent, Louise Attwood, Naveeda Morgan, Victoria Bolton MRICS, Marcia Sinfield, Gordon Brown MCIOB, Sara Foster, Michelle Reid, Chris Kinsey, Rich Thomas, Jan Quarrington, Joanne Smith, Luke Takeuchi, Lisa Pinney) and meet new ones (including Abi Roberts, Nicola Evans, Jodie Follett). #CHCAnnual24 #ShelterCymru #BlakeMorganLLP

Great day at #CHCAnnual2024 Community Housing Cymru Some necasarily sobering but thought provoking panel discussions this morning around the economic environment and its impact on the housing sector, and a great insight this PM into how housing associations are speer heading trials into innovative working practices in our ever changing working world. Great to see some familiar faces and hear from others.

We were delighted to be at the Community Housing Cymru conference in Cardiff Bay over the past two days where representatives from the sector got together to discuss all things housing.🏘️🧑🤝🧑 Lots of discussions around the changing economic and political landscapes and how we can all work together to continue helping and supporting tenants and communities right across Wales.🧑🤝🧑 #partnerships #tenants #communities

A big thank to our delegates, conference chair Sian Lloyd LLB, panellists, speakers, exhibitors and commercial partners for making #CHCAnnual24 another brilliant event for all. We look forward to welcoming you back in 2025! Commercial partners >> Centrus Energy Corp., CHIC Ltd, Gallagher, Hugh James, Lovell Partnerships Ltd, Quantum Advisory, RLH Architectural Ltd, Barcud Shared Services Limited, Travis Perkins Managed Services and Utility Aid Exhbitiors >> Cardiff City Foundation, Gerflor UK & Ireland, Housing Jobs Wales, Housing Justice Cymru, Monmouthshire Building Society and Platfform

A wonderful and insightful couple of days at Community Housing Cymru Annual conference... now as the sunsets, we head West and home.. thanks to everyone for the presentations, panel discussions and for coming to talk to us. Now to get back and get working, to deliver these much needed affordable homes. #endhomelessness #affordablehousing #community #https://lnkd.in/euGJyCMR

Key messages from day two of Annual Conference ⬇️ > The best stories balance emotion and data; they balance human impact with the data, says Councillor Sara Robinson MCIPR PR Consultant Trainer Content Designer Writer. “Facts fade, data gets dumped, stories stick.” > Change is crucial if we want to deliver the level of affordable housing Wales needs now and into the future, a new inquiry report from the Senedd’s Local Government and Housing Committee has found. > The great thing about working in housing is that we all do the same things, but we do it slightly differently and can share learnings, says Merthyr Valleys Homes's assistant director of people Ruth Llewellyn. And to make a success of trialling a four day working week, you have to be confident that it won’t affect the services provided for tenants. > The Welsh Language Standards are not about forcing anything on anyone - it’s about recognising that people engage better in their mother tongue, and providing an “active offer” for people to use it, says Ateb director Rhys Evans. > For social housing, AI can already be used to streamline the tenancy lifecycle; and offer round-the-clock support to tenants, identifying patterns in emerging issues, says OxGen AI founder Cassidy Bereskin. > Working in human-focused services, we need to think about the people we work with as much as we think about the people we support, thinks Platfform CEO Ewan Hilton. #CHCAnnual24