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CHC boss calls for incoming Welsh government to prioritise prevention over short-termism
The chief executive of Community Housing Cymru (CHC) has warned the new Welsh government against “responsive and short-term policy-making” in favour of a long-term plan to end homelessness.
Stuart Ropke made the point during a speech on how the organisation campaigns every year to keep the Housing Support Grant (HSG), a government scheme that funds the majority of homelessness and housing-related support services in Wales.
He described this year as “the most difficult campaign we have ever run”.
Speaking at CHC’s annual governance conference last week, Mr Ropke said: “It is striking that even in the context of the Welsh government’s commitment to ending homelessness in Wales, each year we have had to make the case for this vital revenue fund to be protected.”
The Welsh government announced an extra £5m last month for the HSG, compared with the draft Budget, for homelessness prevention and support. The increase will take the final Budget for 2024-25 to around £220m.
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Mr Ropke added: “These life-changing services have been under constant pressure over the last decade, with funding constraints, huge growth in demand and an increase in the complexity of support needs, all pushing the services closer and closer to breaking point.”
The CHC boss spoke two days before new Welsh first minister Vaughan Gething was sworn in. Mr Ropke’s call echoes that of another sector body in Wales for the minister to make housing the “foundational mission” of his administration and introduce a law for the right to an adequate home.
Mr Ropke added that budgetary decisions made by Mr Gething’s administration dictate whether Wales would be “closer or further away from that shared ambition”.
“A key focus for us, as we engage with the new minister responsible for housing, will be to explore and champion the need for a sustainable multi-year settlement,” he said.
“We need to prioritise prevention in the same way we do a crisis response or we risk simply baking in a cycle of responsive and short term policy making and funding decisions.”
Mr Gething was confirmed as the devolved nation’s new first minister as a successor to Mark Drakeford. The 50-year-old took on the role after narrowly winning the Welsh Labour leadership election.
Among this pledges, he said he wants to make building more social homes a “priority” and speed up the process, helped by “latest construction methods” and modular housing.
The Welsh government has previously committed to building 20,000 low-carbon homes for social rent between 2021 and 2026.
Mr Gething, who was most recently the economy minister in Wales, has also promised that an affordable homes taskforce will be launched to tackle the planning backlog, in addition to a “radical overhaul” of the leasehold system.
On a wider scale, Mr Gething, who is the first Black leader of a European nation, said last month that he wants to lead a Wales “full of hope, ambition and unity”.
Just last week, a group of homelessness and housing organisations in Wales joined a growing chorus of concerns over the UK government’s plans to criminalise rough sleeping under new legislation.
In a letter to the chair of the Welsh parliament’s Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, representatives of eight charities and other organisations warned that new powers to move on, fine or imprison ‘nuisance’ rough sleepers are “dehumanising”.
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