Welsh Government
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More quality homes making a difference to people’s lives
The Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, Lesley Griffiths has welcomed new statistics showing yet another significant rise in the quality of social housing across Wales.
Figures released today show, at the end of March 2014, 67% of all social housing (149,755 homes) met the quality standard set by the Welsh Government, which is a rise of 7 percentage points on the previous year.
The Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) aims to ensure all homes provided by local authorities and housing associations are safe and secure and offer modern amenities.
The Welsh Government expects all social landlords to meet and maintain the WHQS as soon as possible, but in any event no later than 2020.
The new statistics show improvements across the board. The number of compliant Registered Social Landlord properties increased by 8 percentage points to 83%, while the number of compliant local authority properties also saw an increase of 5 percentage points.
The statistics also show 97% of all social housing had fully compliant windows and mains powered smoke detectors, while 82% of homes had bathrooms and kitchens which also met the quality standard. There has also been a rise of 8 percentage points in the number of houses meeting the WHQS energy efficiency target, taking the number to 86% of properties.
Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, Lesley Griffiths, who has responsibility for housing, said:
"We want everyone in Wales to have the opportunity to live in a good quality home within a safe and secure community. Investment in people’s homes can have a far reaching impact. It is vital in improving the nation’s health and well being, creating jobs and training opportunities as well as tackling poverty.
"We have seen good progress across the board, helping us towards our target of ensuring all social housing meets our quality standards by 2020. I am particularly pleased action has been taken to improve the energy efficiency of the Welsh housing stock. This is key to helping families reduce their energy bills.
"I congratulate social landlords for their hard work, however there is still work to be done and we will continue to work with social landlords to improve the homes and lives of tenants."
Councillor Dyfed Edwards (Gwynedd), WLGA Spokesperson for Housing said:
"Local government continues to make very good progress in this area. A number of councils such as Anglesey, Cardiff and Pembrokeshire have already achieved the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, and all councils are on target to achieve this by the 2020 deadline if not well before.
"With proposed changes to Wales' archaic Housing Revenue Account Subsidy system due to be finalised by early 2015, it is hoped that councils will also have greater resources to invest in social housing in the future. Under current arrangements, over £70million of potential investment capital is being removed from council finances into the UK Treasury. Proposed changes to the scheme mean the rents received from tenants will be retained in Wales in the future and can be invested in improving existing homes or building new."
Amanda Oliver, Head of Policy and Research at Community Housing Cymru said:
"CHC welcomes these new statistics. The sector is working hard and making lots of progress in meeting the WHQS, but we know that, as a sector, we still have lots more work to do.
"CHC and the sector is committed to ensuring that tenants live in good quality homes in safe and secure communities.
