Housing Associations – which fall under the legal banner (in Wales) of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) – provide just over 150,000 (or 69.3%) of all social homes available for rent in Wales as of 2022-231.
The sector lies in a grey zone of providing a public service whilst effectively being run as businesses within the private sector.
Additionally, some Welsh councils have maintained council housing while others have no council-let housing at all.
1. StatsWales, “Self-contained stock at social rent by local authority area and provider type” (2022-23). Available at: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Housing/Social-Housing-Stock-and-Rents/selfcontainedstock-by-area-providertype
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There are 34 housing associations listed as members of Community Housing Cymru (the representative body for the sector), though the definition of a “Registered Social Landlord” is a bit broader.
The median number of self-contained social homes for rent managed by a Welsh housing association in 2022-23 was 3,783 – though there are big variations.
Carmarthen-based Stori (formerly Hafan Cymru) only has 89 self-contained homes. That’s because they specialise in housing victims, or potential victims, of domestic abuse.
At the opposite end, some housing associations manage 10,000 homes or more across multiple local authorities – including Newport-based Pobl Group and Cardiff-based Wales & West.
Why do some local authorities in Wales still have council houses?
Despite efforts to shift social housing to housing associations – effectively privatising them – there’s no ban on council housing.
Since 2015, councils in Wales that maintained council housing could buy their way out of the HRA system and become self-financing. They did this by swapping the HRA subsidies for debt from the UK Government’s Public Works Loan Board (there’s a recent story relating to this at Oggy Bloggy Ogwr).
Those councils that exited the HRA system – and could prove that they could bring properties up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard – have kept their council housing stock.
In 2022-23, 37.6% of all self-contained social housing in Wales was council housing. Though in the 11 local authorities that retain council housing, council houses often make up at least half of social homes, with the highest proportions in Wrexham (83.6%) and Ynys Môn (78.6%).
As noted in the previous section, housing stock could only be transferred to a housing association if approved by a referendum of tenants. Large Scale Voluntary Transfers have been rejected several times in Wales, including Wrexham, Flintshire, Caerphilly and the Vale of Glamorgan.
Some referendums have been successful. Bridgend’s stock transfer during 2002-03 led to the establishment of the Valleys2Coast housing association, while a ballot in Neath Port Talbot approved a stock transfer (under controversial circumstances) in 2010-11 to NPT Homes (now Tai Tarian).
How are housing associations run and regulated?
Housing is almost entirely devolved to Wales, so the job of regulating housing associations lies with the Welsh Government.
Business law is still a matter for the UK.
Nearly all housing associations in Wales are registered as community benefit societies. This means they often open membership up to tenants (usually for a token sum of £1), are run by an executive board/directors and are subject to audit and regulation.
Only one housing association in Wales – Merthyr Valley Homes, which manages over 4,000 properties – is run as a mutual. This means members, who are tenants and employees, have greater democratic control over the management of the housing association than they would in a standard community benefit company.
