The manner in which the Cadwyn Housing Association in Cardiff is working to cope with the changes in legislation and the cutbacks in Government spending should mean that it can celebrate its 40th Anniversary in 2012 in good spirits and sound heart. In the last few years, it has won awards for its work in the Community.
As Chris O’Meara, Chief Executive explains, “These are difficult times. Our tenants, and those looking for a home, are going to be much worse off. The sector faces nearly a 60% cut in Social Housing Grant over the next three years, changes in Housing Benefit, energy prices rising, food and transport prices rising. It means that we have to work harder to manage the money.”
One way in which the Association is helping its tenants is by the construction of new, environmentally friendly houses. The Association has just completed a Code 4 housing scheme and is currently on site on a second site that is a mix of Code 4 and Code 5 developments. In addition, we are working for Cardiff Council to convert an old workhouse with a new extension as a hostel for homeless families. This is being done to the BREEAM Excellent rating. Another development we are planning for the coming year is the installation of 200 pv units on the roofs of existing homes.
Chris adds, “I am very proud of the fact that we are already well on the way to meeting our obligations under the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, equivalent to the English Decent Homes programme, We will do this by the end of 2012. We are also building properties that will be let at the intermediate rent level. This is inevitable under the cutbacks in the Social Housing Grant but we will still be within the Housing Benefit levels.”
Something of a new venture is the Association’s work with the private letting sector. By working closely together, the Association, under two schemes – CanDo, a social lettings agency, and Calon (Welsh for heart) Lettings, (a temporary accommodation scheme, has been able to provide 500 more properties for people on its housing list. This led to a UK Housing Award for Innovation and Efficiency, which is the third time Cadwyn had been awarded with this pretigious national award. This has been so successful that the Association is extending it into the Vale of Glamorgan and along the M4 corridor.
They have been successful in providing opportunities to help people get back into work. In the last year the Association has provided over 30 workplace job experience opportunities and apprenticeships.
They have also been keen to help tenants manage their finances, and this will be a larger part of their work going forward as welfare benefits cuts impact. As well as providing money advice, and working with the local credit union, they financially support Moneyline Cymru. This latter scheme is basically a loan service to tenants and people on low incomes. Five pilot loan shops have opened in South Wales, with one in Cardiff and it is estimated that the first 500 loans saved the recipients more than £250,000 in repayments!
As Chris concludes, “We are trying to strike the best balance between providing new homes and improving the lot of our existing tenants but we are always looking for new ideas!”
For further information please telephone 02920 498898 or visit www.cadwyn.co.uk.
