Our asks to Welsh and UK Government 2022
In October 2022, we published a report looking at the impact of the cost of living crisis on housing association tenants in Wales. The Time to Act report was sent to Welsh Government and Welsh MPs alongside a letter offering ideas that would help support social housing tenants at this difficult time.
As a result, meetings were arranged with the Minister for Social Justice and MPs within the Labour Shadow Wales Office. In addition, UK Government announced in November 2022 that it would be moving forward with one of the recommendations of the report - the uprating of benefits by inflation in April 2023.
Read the full statement and the Time to Act report below.
On this page
Our statement
New report by CHC looks at the impact of the cost of living crisis on social housing tenants in Wales
Welsh housing associations and Community Housing Cymru are issuing an urgent call for more support to protect those who live in social housing from the cost of living crisis.
Social housing tenants in Wales are among those who have been hit hardest by the UK’s cost of living crisis. With food and energy prices having risen throughout the year, the forthcoming winter months represent a huge risk to their health, wellbeing and financial stability.
Even before this year’s price hikes, tenants were reporting that non-housing costs were unaffordable on Universal Credit, and that they were struggling to pay for essentials including food, travel and energy bills.
Throughout 2022, housing associations have committed extra resources to their tenant services - such as financial support and advice - which help them to live in safe, secure and affordable homes from day one. However, demand for these services is now very high across all Welsh housing associations, as tenants seek more help than usual, and often for complex problems.
The number of referrals for support has also increased across the sector, with 81% of housing associations surveyed by CHC now offering a hardship fund for tenants, up from 69% in 2021/22.
Worryingly, many housing associations now report that they are reaching the limits of what they can do to help with day to day costs such as food and energy. Every option for tenants has been explored and no further savings can be identified or support offered.
Housing associations know that they cannot solve the cost of living crisis for their tenants alone, and so are working with partners in the housing, voluntary and public sectors to stop the crisis becoming a catastrophe - but government intervention has now become crucial to helping the Welsh communities most affected by the cost of living crisis.
On behalf of its members, Community Housing Cymru is calling on the UK and Welsh governments to urgently:
take action to ensure that the welfare system provides a sufficient safety net so that Welsh social housing tenants can afford to pay for food and other basic essentials;
reduce the pressure of energy costs for Welsh social housing tenants;
extend the energy price guarantee for care and support providers to two years.
Alongside this, we are calling on Welsh Government to work with housing associations to target support to tenants in need, and develop proposals for an energy bills social tariff alongside Ofgem.
Our priorities as a sector are clear: support tenants as we face the ongoing cost of living crisis and rising energy costs, and ensure rents are affordable for them; provide stability for housing associations to continue offering vital support to tenants; and invest in building good quality homes to secure the future of social housing in Wales.
Without government support, however, social housing tenants are going to be put in extremely difficult situations in the coming days and weeks.
Visit this page to read some of the external research that has informed this call to government.
Our asks in full
Background
All housing associations in Wales deliver homes and services with a clear social purpose.
Throughout the past year, housing associations have been becoming increasingly concerned about the impact that increases in cost of living could have on their communities, in particular for households on lower incomes.
The chief executives of all Welsh Housing Associations commissioned Community Housing Cymru to establish a dedicated group which would bring together key staff from across Wales to focus on what these organisations could do to support their customers.
As housing associations are highly experienced in providing support to individuals and the wider community, the group used its extensive operational knowledge and understanding of the policy context to identify activities that could be developed by housing associations and provide clear recommendations for the Welsh and UK Government to enable people to be supported during these challenging times.
Over several months we have engaged with partners from the voluntary, business and public sectors across Wales, together with Welsh Government and key UK Government departments including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). We will continue to undertake research to monitor the impact of cost of living and the effectiveness of government interventions, highlighting where more can and should be done to support people during these challenging times.