Questioning the Finance Minister over her Draft Budget last December, I asked how much the Welsh Government received in consequence of the UK Government’s announcement of the biggest house building programme by any government since the 1970s, for England?
And how much of that additional money she would be allocating to new housing supply in Wales during 2016-17, after the devastating cuts imposed on housing since 1999 in Wales?
No answers were provided.
This weekend’s last minute, pre-election announcement of some extra funding for social housing, but only during this current financial year, must be judged in this context.
Wales has had by far the lowest proportional level of housing expenditure of any of the four UK countries.
New home registrations in Wales have lagged behind the rest of Britain for years – and last year Wales was again the only UK nation to see a fall in the number of new homes registered.
Twelve years ago, I warned that stripping money out of housing to fund Labour’s top down, anti-poverty programmes was akin to throwing mud at the wall while digging up the wall’s foundations.
It is also 12 years since the housing sector warned of an impending housing crisis in Wales unless urgent action was taken.
Although housing is key to sustainable community regeneration – and the “Homes for Wales” campaign is calling on the next Welsh Government to end the housing crisis in Wales - capital funding “to increase the supply and choice of affordable quality housing” in this Labour budget is barely two thirds of that last provided by Conservative Government in 1997, despite average house prices in Wales being almost 250% higher.
Wales needs the whole housing sector, working together, to tackle the housing crisis - by delivering a comprehensive housing reform programme.
I welcome the Welsh Government’s U turn on proposed cuts to the Supporting People Programme, but regret it took an all Wales campaign to achieve this.
As I said in the 2014-15 Draft Budget debate, Labour’s proposed cuts to this preventative programme represented a false economy which would lead to greater cost.
Further, as Cymorth Cymru –representing over 100 housing related support organisations – states:
“the programme now needs a full scale organisation and focus on better prevention, partnership and procurement – spending to save”.
Rural Housing Enablers are key to delivering rural affordable housing, tackling the strategic barriers identified in their 2014 evaluation– so why does this draft budget scrap their funding?
The Williams Commission report on Public Service Governance and Delivery found that the only viable way to meet the needs and aspirations of people is to shift the emphasis of public service towards co-production and prevention, working with third sector and independent organisations, communities and individuals.
The Auditor General has stated that Councils need to consider alternative models of delivery, but found that although some Councils are managing to provide key services with less money accordingly, many Councils are too slow in reviewing alternative methods of delivery and missing out on opportunities to reduce expenditure.
Only last week, the Wales Audit Office told the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee that the Auditor General has talked about the need for Local Authorities to innovate and do things differently.
However, although the Welsh Government is facing a real terms reduction in the block grant averaging just 1.1% annually over four years, serious concern has been expressed to me by homelessness charities that a proposed 8.1% cut to homelessness prevention is going to have worrying consequences.
As they state, if we can’t keep people in their homes, the knock-on effects will be felt by Local Government, Supporting People providers, Education and NHS Wales.
They tell me that all Third Sector organisations funded by this have had a 5% cut this year and that cutting this, whilst reinforcing Local Authorities, appears to be a false economy and doesn’t make sense.
Although the Welsh Government states that £4.9 million of the £5.4 million - or 48% - cut in Homelessness Action represents a non-recurrent allocation in 2015-16, I am advised that even your officials are confused by this!
Equally, concern has been expressed to me about the proposed 9% cut to Core County Voluntary Council Funding, where this will devastate their ability to support more user-led, preventative and cost effective-services.
In the words of Flintshire Local Voluntary Council “as the Welsh Government is requesting commitment from the Third Sector to explore Alternative Delivery Models for crucial public services, the foundations that exist to develop quality Third Sector services are being decimated”.