Director gives evidence before Senedd committee

Sarah Schofield, our Director of Customers and Communities was given the chance to provide evidence to the Senedd’s Local Government and Housing Committee meeting in Cardiff Bay yesterday to discuss issues around Welsh Government’s housing support for vulnerable people.

Sarah was joined by Rhea Stevens from Community Housing Cymru and Claire Budden from Clwyd Alyn who all gave evidence in one of three sessions held on the issue.

Sarah said: “It was a great experience to provide evidence to the Senedd’s committee about such an important topic. We were asked for our views on issues such as rapid rehousing and the Housing First programme, as well as addressing issues around housing need, people living in unsuitable housing and preventing people from going into temporary accommodation. We were also asked for our views on the Welsh Government’s strategy on tackling these issues.

“We highlighted the fact that long term funding is important, that creating new homes is also important, but equally as crucial is the need for strengthened joint working between organisations and the culture of that joint working. We need to be getting organisations into the same space and allocating time to come up with better solutions.

“There are good examples in north Wales of great collaboration.  For example, the 137 High Street project in Bangor, which is a collaboration between ourselves, North Wales Housing and Cyngor Gwynedd. This is an example where the various organisations have delivered to their strengths and achieved an outcome – a real regeneration project for Bangor city centre and a housing with support staff onsite.  It highlights the importance of organisations talking to each other, playing to their strengths and coming up with solutions together. And that needs to happen more across the sector.

“We also provided written evidence to the committee about the future of the Housing Support Grant, in light of rapid rehousing and the forthcoming Homelessness Bill,  as well as pressures on housing services and the importance of supporting front line staff.

“Key to our evidence was the need for services to keep developing and staff to be better supported so we can meet the increasing needs of our communities”.