Thursday, February 25, 2010
Legislative Competency Orders
The National Assembly for Wales debated the Housing and Local Government LCO 2010. The measures being introduced relate to legislation on a range of housing policy matters. The National Assembly debate on the LCO can be found here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/wales/newsid_8533000/8533807.stm
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Wales emerging from the recession - But will some tenants in Wales see the benefits?
We welcome the announcement today that Britain is officially (at least technically) out of recession. Although the growth is slight at just 0.1% over the last quarter of 2009 the news means that we are slowly emerging from one of the deepest recessions since the war (Treasury office). Although this is a technical issue for the economy anoraks, many in Wales see the recent announcements at Bosch, with 900 jobs potentially lost as akin to an impact wave yet to have truly reached our shores. With companies beginning to assess the damage to their sales, no doubt there will be more such news stories in future months.
The news follows on from figures produced by the Citizen Advice Bureau who reported that since the recession began in April 08 through to September 09, there has been 3million debt enquires with 630,000 housing related cases (CAB press office 2010). Measures taken by the housing and housing related support sector in Wales has meant that people are able to access better housing and housing related debt management advice however, this does not resolve what will be longer term impacts.
At the Welsh Tenants Federation demand for information and advice has been extensive with tenants requesting more information from representatives about how they can access advice in their communities, with a call for better outreach support.
By far the biggest concern as expressed by a sample of regional members across Wales is pensioner poverty with 73% elderly people reporting tougher times with a reported mismatch between rent and cost of living rises and pension rises.
Drilling into these figures rents, service charges and fuel poverty are the three biggest issues that pensioners are concerned about. Among other profiles, job security and general pressures on family budgets are also areas of concern. Nationally this mirrors concerns expressed by pensioners and fuel poverty campaign groups. One pensioner from North Wales said that ‘We need a better deal for pensioners in Wales, one which rewards those who have planned reasonably well for retirement’ He added, ‘People just have to adjust their aspirations for engaging in the consumer merry-go-round, and get back to models of thrift and financial responsibility. There needs to be greater emphasis on making do, recycling, taking better care of what we have, as we did in more austere times, we just have to adjust our expectations’.
In the latter end of 2009 tenants attending regional ATTAIN events said that the government has to legislate on issues such as social tariffs for fuel and work better to end child poverty. The report ‘Adjusting our expectations, in a consumer driven society’ 2010 will be available from the Welsh Tenants Federation shortly.
The news follows on from figures produced by the Citizen Advice Bureau who reported that since the recession began in April 08 through to September 09, there has been 3million debt enquires with 630,000 housing related cases (CAB press office 2010). Measures taken by the housing and housing related support sector in Wales has meant that people are able to access better housing and housing related debt management advice however, this does not resolve what will be longer term impacts.
At the Welsh Tenants Federation demand for information and advice has been extensive with tenants requesting more information from representatives about how they can access advice in their communities, with a call for better outreach support.
By far the biggest concern as expressed by a sample of regional members across Wales is pensioner poverty with 73% elderly people reporting tougher times with a reported mismatch between rent and cost of living rises and pension rises.
Drilling into these figures rents, service charges and fuel poverty are the three biggest issues that pensioners are concerned about. Among other profiles, job security and general pressures on family budgets are also areas of concern. Nationally this mirrors concerns expressed by pensioners and fuel poverty campaign groups. One pensioner from North Wales said that ‘We need a better deal for pensioners in Wales, one which rewards those who have planned reasonably well for retirement’ He added, ‘People just have to adjust their aspirations for engaging in the consumer merry-go-round, and get back to models of thrift and financial responsibility. There needs to be greater emphasis on making do, recycling, taking better care of what we have, as we did in more austere times, we just have to adjust our expectations’.
In the latter end of 2009 tenants attending regional ATTAIN events said that the government has to legislate on issues such as social tariffs for fuel and work better to end child poverty. The report ‘Adjusting our expectations, in a consumer driven society’ 2010 will be available from the Welsh Tenants Federation shortly.
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