Shelter Cymru Conference Report

[The Uni’s wordpress has been out of action.  These posts were from last week]

Yesterday, I was at the Shelter Cymru People and Homes conference, which took place in the Marriott near Cardiff station.  The great and the good of the housing world were there, and there were lots of lovely people who said hello who were also at the Masterclasses (hello!).  This was a great event to establish and encourage a certain commonality of perspectives.  There was much discussion of the housing “emergency” and housing “crisis”, by which I think the amazing array of speakers meant that there is an undersupply of suitable quality housing to meet the needs of the population.  There was also an excellent, somewhat coded discussion about the importance of transparency and assisting households coming in to new neighbourhoods.

Duncan Forbes spoke about the problem of housing standards and planning in developing new social housing.  It appears from Inside Housing that the WG is open to re-considering its position on housing standards.

Sian Gwenllian came to speak.  I think it is the first time that I have heard her speak.  I am a fan, particularly of the recognition that housing is part of a complex, interconnected, holistic partnership.  In addition, she outlined the plan for government which we have covered on this blog and need not detain us further.  What she outlined felt like a really bold, ambitious programme of progressive legislation for Wales.

There was also the rather wonderful Dan Hewitt, with whom I am slightly in love (see past blogs), talking about his new book.  Yes, I’m afraid I did tell him that and that I am a fanboy.  Along with Vicky Spratt and Pete Apps, we now have housing journalism which we deserve, and of which we can be proud, for possibly the first time.

I am not sure if the organisers meant for me to come away with this feeling – I strongly suspect not – but there is an issue which probably needs to be confronted.  We have a suite of amazingly progressive legislation creating positive rights and duties both now and planned for the future.  The issue goes something like this: if there is a housing “emergency” or “crisis”, is that perhaps a moment for reflection and not creating new, expanded rights/duties etc which create expectations?

For example, I was struck by the statistic that 48% of new social housing allocations go to homeless households (a massive increase since 1995/96).  I think we need to be quite careful because, when we are not in our echo chambers, that kind of a statistic is a boon to the kind of views which perpetuate the myth that there is a perverse incentive to make an application for homelessness assistance (the kind of views which underpinned the 1994 consultation document for those with long memories).  But, we also need to be asking if creating expanded rights creates expectations which we know in our hearts that we cannot fulfill.  This is something I am thinking about much more as I am writing a “biography” of the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977.

I was at a session about the implementation of the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation Act and missed the right to adequate housing parallel session (I sort of wish that I had been there).  The former is creating new rights and obligations, rightly, and its implementation is designed to change the culture of decision-making.  All of that is positive and great, but in a highly constrained system within which local authority decision-makers are struggling to secure accommodation and comply with their duties.  There was an impassioned defence of local authority practice in the session I attended, for example, and at the Masterclasses local authority officers were expressing frustration at their inability to source decent quality temporary (or any) accommodation to meet the needs of households.

I love what we do in Wales.  I love the way in which we do it.  I even love the idea of partnership (although it has problems imho).  But, there is also a sense of inevitability about creating expectations which cannot be met.  There is a case for progressive legislation to be made, but, perhaps, we should do so more carefully in the face of the undersupply issue.

I suspect that Shelter Cymru might not invite me back after those thoughts, but thank you anyway for my free ticket 😊.  It was a brilliant day and it was lovely to be surrounded by such amazing people.