Social housing funding and regulation in Wales

Around £800 million of private finance has been raised for social housing in Wales, and with a number of local authorities having already or planning to transfer housing through large scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) to housing associations (HAs), the requirement for funding is estimated to rise from around £80 million to over £200 million per annum.

This growth in LSVT activity has meant the number of HAs and stock in this sector has increased significantly and looks set to continue to do so. This changes not only the size of the HA sector but also its characteristics as LSVT HAs typically require substantial start up funding to deliver large investment programmes and as such have a higher risk profile whilst having ambitious growth and diversification plans.

In October 2007 the Deputy Minister for Housing in Wales established a Task and Finish Group headed by Sue Essex, to carry out a review to explore the barriers and opportunities presented by the Welsh Assembly Government's (WAG) priority to deliver significantly more affordable homes in Wales by 2011. 

The Task and Finish Group presented their final report to the Minister for Housing in June 2008 setting out recommendations on all aspects of delivering affordable housing with a key focus on the future of housing association regulation. 

The WAG, in response to the Essex Review, have set up a series of workstreams covering all of the recommendations put forward by Sue Essex and her team. 

These include:

Workstream A: Better use of existing properties (and impact of the credit crunch) 

Workstream B: Affordable Housing Delivery

Workstream C: Performance & monitoring information*

Workstream D: Regulation

Workstream E: Finances

(* workstream C has since been amalgamated within the other workstreams)

More information about how the work is being taken forward under each of the workstreams can be found here. Some of the workstreams, eg, that on regulation have sub-groups tasked with working up proposals.

The workstreams are due to conclude by April 2009.