{"id":368,"date":"2026-05-29T05:40:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/?p=368"},"modified":"2026-05-29T09:10:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:10:06","slug":"theres-optimism-and-hope-and-then-theres-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/theres-optimism-and-hope-and-then-theres-law\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s optimism and hope – and then there’s law"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the new government settles in to its roles, and its anticipated work begins, there is (I think) considerable optimism and hope about housing policy in Wales amidst the significant difficulties facing the sector.\u00a0 The CIH Cymru conference<\/a> in April was described by Bob Smith as follows:<\/p>\n

“Despite all the evidence of the growing and often deep-rooted housing crisis in Wales, and the many challenges to be addressed, there seemed a degree of optimism amongst those attending Tai this year (hopefully, it was more than just the Spring sunshine). There appeared to be a recognition, as Clarissa Corbisiero said in the penultimate session, that the housing sector in Wales needs to be brave and bold in offering new thinking and possible solutions. Incremental change will not cut it. Whilst the conference highlighted the breadth and scale of many of the challenges, and the constraints facing the sector, the mood seemed relatively buoyant.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The always excellent Jennie Bibbings and Gwennan Hardy of the Senedd Research team have outlined the scale of housing need in the context of resolving homelessness in a rather brilliant publication,\u00a0What’s Next? Key Issues for the Seventh Senedd<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The great skill they employ is linking the resolution of homelessness to the delivery of new social housing.\u00a0 There are far too many households currently in temporary housing, and far too many children as well.\u00a0 The previous government’s growth of social housing stock has only partly dented that figure:<\/p>\n

“Local authorities have produced rapid rehousing transition plans, but despite having successfully moved 9,096 people from temporary accommodation into settled homes during 2025, their efforts have only made a modest dent in overall numbers due to the sheer scale of demand.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My interest was piqued by reference to the commonly expressed view that the new homelessness Act will only “encourage more people into a system that can\u2019t cope already”.\u00a0 I’ve always found this an interesting bureaucratic view, partly because it ties in with Lipsky’s analysis of street-level bureaucracy, and partly because it feels a counterintuitive view that legislation will encourage more people to become homeless to take advantage of the Act.\u00a0 Many years ago, I wrote about this view following a study with unsuccessful applicants for homelessness assistance in England, arguing that<\/p>\n

“Applicants are often viewed as knowledgeable agents, conniving to screw the system (which they understand well) by dishonestly providing information which will compel the housing authority to offer housing (unless the dishonesty can be exposed).\u00a0 …\u00a0 In this study it is suggested that such a legal consciousness narrative is too simplistic. Instead the data suggest that homeless applicants perceive law in a number of ways: while some see law as a barrier to be surmounted, others regard it as authoritative, inflexible and final; while some see it as just, others regard it as inequitable; while some see it as empowering, others regard it as oppressive; and while some feel they understand the legal rules of entitlement to housing, many in the sample find them bewildering.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In short, assertions like that of knowledge of law are generally exaggerations, which are understandable from a street-level view bearing in mind the limited resources available to homelessness services.\u00a0 That context of limited resources particularly came across from the CIH Cymru’s manifesto for the election, with a focus on protecting the workforce.\u00a0 In that context, the report written for CIH Cymru by Helen Taylor and Alex McInch, Senedd Election 2026: Hearing the Housing Professionals\u2019 Voice<\/a>, provides important data.\u00a0 One of their findings about the new homelessness Act was that “… participants were concerned about additional pressures on and use of emergency and temporary accommodation in order to meet new duties.”\u00a0 That is an expression of the same view about encouragement, put slightly differently.<\/p>\n

Unlike Westminster, one of the great things about Wales is that housing is a key priority and rarely out of the news, so you can see that it would be a desirable profession to join.\u00a0 However, that can be tempered when working with other professionals, at which point the housing professional is \u201c’not valued like other professionals’\u201d.\u00a0 While a number of barriers impacting on day-to-day work were identified (workforce, WHQS, lack of participation in policy-making, development), I was struck by Taylor and McInch’s findings about Renting Homes:<\/p>\n

“Participants reported a lack of understanding of the legislation including among legal professionals. They called for more specific training for judges on the implications of the Act and a general lack of clarity amongst all professionals who are involved in its use. Participants also highlighted the significant cost of legal advice related to the use of the legislation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suspect that my judicial readers (if any) might feel a little aggrieved by that comment given the training given to the district bench – and, let’s face it, the same is said of English judges, and, no doubt, elsewhere – and, perhaps, reflects things that don’t always go the way of housing professionals.\u00a0 However, the lack of clarity and cost remain significant issues.\u00a0 Certainly, in putting together the housing law masterclasses in September (10th and 11th – put it in your diary!), I have heard comments from both landlord and tenant lawyers about points not being taken in proceedings; and, during our work on refuges, we heard from professionals bewildered by contradictory legal advice and the requirements of the Act.\u00a0 It is one thing enacting progressive legislation (and Renting Homes really was progressive at the time, and still is imho – although we do need to do more on rents), but it doesn’t make much difference if that is not translated into everyday practive.\u00a0 Implementation is hard to do, as scholars have noted for decades.<\/p>\n

There may also be something here that would be worth teasing out.\u00a0 We suspect homeless applicants know and use the law written for bureaucrats to their advantage, when we know how complicated that law actually is; on the other hand, when statutes are designed to be used and understandable by ordinary people, they are recognised as lacking clarity by professionals using it everyday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the new government settles in to its roles, and its anticipated work begins, there is (I think) considerable optimism and hope about housing policy in Wales amidst the significant […]","protected":false},"author":7123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}