9. Short Debate: The power of co-operative housing solutions in helping to meet housing needs in communities across Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 7:11 pm on 23 October 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 7:11, 23 October 2019

I welcome that intervention. I'll just finish the thought I was having, which was basically I'm keen to ensure community-led housing groups can access capital funding of whatever sort. So, if you're aware of groups that want capital funding of that sort, even if we haven't got a bespoke fund, it’s worth getting in touch, because I'm very keen to support them in partnership with an RSL or not, or the local authority or whatever.

On that particular point, actually, I'm looking at domain regulations. So, I've recently said in this Chamber that I'm looking at reviewing the regulatory regime for RSLs, and one of the things that I'm also looking to do there is have what’s called, 'domain regulations', so that’s regulation of tenant participation and voice across social housing. So, that’s not the governance and financial controls, because obviously they're very different in a local authority, but it is the tenant voice, effectively. So, I just reiterate that we are looking at that.

We've also had the Communities Creating Homes programme undertaking independent research into the wider benefits of living in co-operative or community-led housing, and I'm due to launch the findings of that report on 7 November. I look forward to hearing about the wider benefits individuals feel they gain from living in community-led housing associations. I have heard them personally as well in, actually, one of the examples that Dawn talked about. So, I've got no doubt that community-led housing must be a part of the solution to the housing crisis we face in Wales.

I do believe in truly sustainable communities of mixed tenure, where land sites in public and private ownership are used to build the right homes to meet the need that exists. That does mean sites should have a greater proportion of affordable housing than is often the case at the moment, and it also means that it should not be immediately obvious which homes are privately owned and which are affordable homes on one housing development. I cannot say often enough that I do not want to see the kind of division between communities which is neither necessary nor helpful that arises when you corral social housing into one bit of a development.

All types of community-led housing can help us in achieving sustainable communities. We can explore alternative solutions for wider Government priorities. For example, when I met with the Wales Co-operative Centre back in March, I challenged them to explore how community-led housing can be part of an innovative community approach to leaseholder management fees. So, you've mentioned a small part of that in the example you said—it’s gone out of my head. Taf Fechan, wasn't it? And I think community-led housing can also be part of a town-centre-regeneration approach to include mixed-used properties. So, this business about how you control who has what part of the lease can be done on a co-operative basis. And I think that is one of the solutions that we'd like to look at.

So, I'll just conclude by reiterating my call to Members that many of us share the same aspirations for housing in general, and broad support for the co-operative and community-led housing movement in Wales, and I'm very open to working with all Members on this agenda to better support those solutions. Diolch.