North Wales housing associations coming together to tackle cost of living crisis
Six housing associations across North Wales have worked together to produce a document that explains their immediate and longer-term response to the cost of living crisis.
Adra, Cartrefi Conwy, ClwydAlyn, Grŵp Cynefin, North Wales Housing and Wales & West Housing produced Our Collective Cost of Living Response: Housing Associations across north Wales
Gareth Leech, Innovate Project Lead at Cartrefi Conwy, explains how and why they teamed up to publish the report.
“These are the six housing associations with homes across the north Wales region. The idea came about from one of the regular meetings that the six CEOs and various Directors have, at a time when we were all looking ahead to a tricky few months of increasing fuel bills and cost of living. It made sense we should all work together in our response to get the best out of what we all do. Our common social purpose to make a positive impact on local people across North Wales led the way.
“The information collection took on quite a wide scope. It looked to understand each organisation’s approach to priorities around zero evictions and rent affordability – positively, we’re all on the same wavelength in those areas and are all committed to zero evictions into homelessness, and to keeping rents affordable.
“We also looked at the different initiatives and approaches we take. These ranged from how we all provide money advice support, and which other organisations we work with to support communities, to what projects we have going on to tackle fuel, food and digital poverty.
“Holistically we are all facing similar issues, however there are also differences as together we cover such a wide region, with many rural communities and coastal towns, and varying estate sizes. This means there are bespoke local issues that we need to tailor our support to. A positive from this work is helping identify those areas of good practice and learn from each other as we all have our own unique strengths.
“We are fortunate to have good productive relationships between the CEOs and housing associations in general in north Wales. The early engagement and clear messaging from the leadership teams in the organisations was also a great help – as the old saying goes, you need buy-in from the top! The ‘burning platform’ that the cost-of-living crisis has created helped spark colleagues across all the housing associations into action. It was very much a case that yes we may all be under pressure, but yes we’re all in this together. We all work in a very values-driven sector where we all want to make a positive impact for the communities we serve.
“Looking at the work going on across the sector, I was both surprised and not surprised at the extent of activity. When I say not surprised, I mean that I knew this type of positive work was going on across the sector, and without coming across as complacent, it’s almost become expected that Welsh housing associations will deliver these type of things. When I say I was surprised, it was at the wide breadth of initiatives and positive impact we’re making across the region.
“At Cartrefi Conwy I get to witness our innovative subsidiary Creating Enterprise providing everything from employability and digital skills to practical and financial assistance to help our communities thrive. We’re also reshaping and adapting our projects and services in line with our recently launched Social Impact Strategy and one of its key focus areas to ‘Tackle Poverty’."
“ClwydAlyn has a proactive approach to tackling food poverty through their social enterprise ‘Well-Fed’. They partner with Flintshire Council and Can Cook to offer a range of affordable and subsidised food though mobile shops, fresh chilled meals, and a meal box delivery services to those in need. They’re even offering hot lunch to all staff to support them through the cost of living crisis."
“Adra and Grŵp Cynefin have collaborated when it comes to fuel poverty, and jointly fund an Energy Warden scheme. These wardens proactively provide energy saving advice, help to find cheaper tariffs as well as supporting tenants to apply for any grants or benefits that they are eligible for. More details via this link for Adra and this link for Grŵp Cynefin"
“Wales and West Housing is helping to tackle digital poverty by looking at providing free Wi-Fi in all schemes with communal areas to enable residents to access services online and some new developments are also automatically being provided with free to use Wi-Fi. This is something that North Wales Housing is also doing with free Wi-Fi in some schemes as well as digital inclusion initiatives."
“This doesn’t feel like a flash in the pan piece of work. The CEOs and Directors groups that are involved have still got their regular meetings, I feel this document can help lead and shape discussions on what else we could all do to support our local communities. There has been tangible movement within the partnership. We’ve recently run a couple of workshops alongside Warm Wales and the National Energy Action to focus on fuel poverty initiatives. We are looking to align the support and advice we provide, as well as potentially issuing a joint bid for funding to expand existing fuel poverty initiatives to deliver best value to more people. We are also linking in with the 2025 Movement (a group consisting of social housing, health, local authorities, and Glyndwr University to share expertise and collaborate to tackle health inequalities in North Wales) to launch the ‘Croeso Cynnes’ (Warm Welcome) initiative, which will provide a network of warm spaces for people to drop into during the winter months. At Cartrefi Conwy we launched our offer across community hubs in early October where we’re also providing warm food at the same time.