Only 50% of local authorities in Wales have retained their council housing stock and play a direct role in the delivery of affordable, good quality homes as a social housing landlord.
We're one of them.
All our landlord functions are managed within a ring—fenced Housing Revenue Account and (among other things), that means we have to present an "acceptable" Housing Revenue Account Business Plan to Welsh Government every year - and it's just been published.
We hear you. So far, so dry.
But get into the detail and it makes for some interesting reading.
You can read it yourself here if you don't believe us:
https://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s56523/Cabinet%2010%20March%202022%20HRA%20App.pdf?LLL=0
But for a start, it includes our key commitment to create more than 4,000 new homes, including 2,800 affordable new council homes...like the ones in this picture.
All 2,800 of those homes will be available for social rent directly from us or made available via our Assisted Home Ownership Scheme. The remaining 1,200 will be sold at market value - with priority given to local buyers.
Why sell at market value? Because we want to show developers that they can build higher quality, sustainable homes and still make a reasonable profit, and also because any profit we do make can be reinvested in in building more affordable new council homes.
All told, it's the largest council housing build programme in Wales - an investment that will eventually total more than £800m and it is already delivering new homes, like these in Crofts Street in Plasnewydd.
By January this year 802 new homes had already been created, including 609 new council homes and 193 homes for sale. A further 410 are under construction, 133 more are out to tender for a contractor and 423 have planning permission in place.
One of our schemes with planning permission is the £85m regeneration of Channel View estate. Work on the first phase of this transformational project starts this spring and will deliver 350 sustainable, low-carbon homes for the local community.
Why so many new homes? Well, a recent Local Housing Market Assessment identified that more than 2,000 new homes are required per year, just to meet current demand.
But investing in new homes isn't our only objective - we're also investing in existing council homes.
96% of our homes are already above Welsh Government standards, but during 2022/23 more than £19m will be invested in improvements including things like new kitchens and bathrooms, sprinkler systems, roof and window replacements, and work has recently started to overclad 3 high-rise blocks of flats which had cladding removed in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy.
More on that here: https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/28592.html
Plans are also in place to fit external wall insulation and photovoltaic panels to all remaining low-rise blocks of flats, and we're also moving towards Net Zero Carbon housing development.
In fact, as part of our One Planet Cardiff strategy we've already begun using on-site renewable technologies and sustainable forms of construction - for example, this is the solar array on our recent Crofts St development.
Then there are the 42 Passivhaus council homes we're currently building at Highfields in Heath...
...and the 214 new homes at the former Rumney High School site, each of which have ground source heat pumps like the one that will go into the bore hole being drilled here...
...as well as solar PV and battery storage, high performing building fabric and electric vehicle chargers. They'll look like this and are predicted to be 90% more energy efficient than homes built to current building regulations - which means big savings on energy bills for residents.
And because, just like in all homes, sometimes things do go wrong - our Responsive Repairs Unit will be employing more maintenance workers to complete minor jobs for tenants, freeing up skilled tradespeople for more complex work and helping us respond to issues more quickly.
We're also planning to establish a new Repairs Academy offering a route for young people to learn a trade through apprenticeships and traineeships.
The Academy builds on the work we're already doing to support young people in Cardiff via our Onsite Construction Academy, which offers training and onsite experience to learners from all backgrounds and results in site-ready candidates for a variety of construction roles.
But we also want Cardiff to be a great place to grow older, and the plan also contains information on ten new Community Living projects which will provide over 500 new homes specifically for older people, alongside communal facilities.
The first will be Addison House in Rumney, but additional schemes are also planned at Maelfa and St Mellons, as well as part of the Channel View development we mentioned earlier.
And what about people who are homeless?
Well, in the first instance, we work hard to try to prevent it.
Take our Young Person Gateway as an example, it supports young people threatened with homelessness, or who need to move on from care and trains them in maintaining a tenancy - with a 99% success rate over the last five years.
But this is what Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Linda Thorne had to say recently about homelessness when it does occur:
"We want to see an end to homelessness in the city altogether, but where that isn't possible we want to ensure it is rare, brief and not repeated."
That's why the plan explains how we will work with partners to pilot a rapid rehousing approach to support people quickly into accommodation, and will open the second of our family homelessness centres in the Spring, as well as completing the first phase of our Adams Court supported accommodation scheme for single homeless people.
And our approach is already having successes - people like KL, one of our Housing First clients. He spent many years sleeping rough, usually opting for a tent in the city centre. This is him cooking his first meal in his new home.
We're proud of him, and so was his Mum, when he invited her around for dinner.
That's just a snapshot of some of the things covered in our Housing Revenue Account Business Plan - there's more, from Blooming Marvellous gardening competitions and coffee mornings as part of our work to promote safe and inclusive communities, to our Welsh Housing Awards win and new wellbeing hubs like this one planned for Llanedeyrn.
And okay, it's not the snappiest title, but it really is worth a read because it goes to the heart of something we all need - home and community.
Read it here: https://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s56523/Cabinet%2010%20March%202022%20HRA%20App.pdf?LLL=0