Community Enterprise Wales Projects & Partners

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Welsh Housing Quality Standards and the Stock Transfer

The Welsh Assembly Government requires local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) to bring their housing stock up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) by 2012 and maintain it thereafter. To achieve WHQS, six authorities in South Wales – Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Monmouthshire, Torfaen, Merthyr Tydfil and Newport – have or will shortly transfer their housing stock to new RSLs, involving a total of 40,000 former council properties. A further South Wales authority – Blaenau Gwent – will be balloting tenants in 2008 on proposals to transfer to a new RSL. Tenants of the City and County of Swansea voted not to transfer to a new RSL in 2007 and four authorities – Cardiff, Caerphilly, Neath Port Talbot and The Vale of Glamorgan – are either proposing to retain their housing stock or are considering options.

The WHQS capital programme between 2008 and 2012 for the 95,670 council and transfer RSL properties across the twelve South Wales local authority areas will range between £700 million and £1.4 billion. For the five most recent stock transfer organisations – RCT Homes, Bronafon Community Housing, Monmouthshire Housing, Newport City Homes and Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association – capital spending will increase five times over the next 5 years from £19 to £96 million per year and although investment falls between years 6 and 10 to £40 million per year, this is still over twice what would have been spent had transfer not taken place.

The co-location of housing investment with areas of the greatest economic inactivity will offer the chance to regenerate communities and create long-term local jobs. The WHQS plus agenda promoted by i2i aims to maximise such opportunities and promote community ownership and involvement in housing.

Over the last 20 years or so due to resource constraints most local authorities have concentrated on maintaining the external fabric of buildings. WHQS programmes will mean much more work to the interior of properties and this will have a major impact on the skills and training needed. It is estimated that delivering WHQS across South Wales will require up to 2700 additional workers over a ten-year period.

Social Enteprrise and WHQS:

The Assembly Government is committed to stimulating enterprise and business growth and enhancing skills for long-term sustainable employment and the SME and social enterprise sectors will have a crucial role in delivery on this project through two main routes:

There will be support for social enterprises which could also lead to the creation of sustainable local employment for example, by ring-fencing a percentage of environmental capital and revenue budgets for local projects and encouraging the use of local community resources such as cafes and community halls. CEW is working with I2I on the Social Enterprise involvement in The WHQS.

For further information on how the WHQS can benefit your organisation or for a copy of the WHQS plus report contact Sara Boome.