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This crisis has exposed serious weaknesses in our system – a radical plan is now needed
How will the fall-out from COVID-19 be dealt with politically? Stuart Ropke argues that the government should not turn off the tap of funding and support any time soon
A month into this crisis offers a timely moment not only to reflect, but to begin the hard task of thinking about the future.
What might be required to renew and rebuild, not only what is increasingly likely to be a shattered economy, but wider society, too?
As chief executive of a representative body, I am incredibly proud of the way that our members – housing associations across Wales – have dealt with the immediate crisis in front of them.
From ensuring that vital services can continue to be delivered, to supporting local partners by providing accommodation and offers of staffing resource, to checking in on tenants and making sure they have everything they need – they have done everything that could be expected of them and more.
Housing associations providing care homes and other domiciliary services have had to face particularly challenging circumstances to ensure that some of the most vulnerable in society are cared for.
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However, throughout this COVID-19 outbreak, they too have responded with incredible fortitude even when things which should be simple, like sourcing the supply of appropriate personal protective equipment, has been far from easy.
In many ways, our role at Community Housing Cymru hasn’t changed much but the urgency of the work we are doing has increased considerably.
We exist to represent the views of our members to government in this period, and to seek answers and clarifications to the myriad problems that are arising in a world where the virus has suspended normal life.
I think we have been broadly successful in doing this and our work has assisted housing associations in Wales to adapt to a new way of working and thinking.
“It is already clear that despite all the uncertainties surrounding us, there exists an opportunity for real and dynamic change”
The only exception to this is if you’d told me three weeks ago that we would be co-ordinating the supply of hand sanitiser to organisations from four distribution hubs across Wales, I would have thought you absurd.
It is already clear that despite all the uncertainties surrounding us, there exists an opportunity for real and dynamic change.
If we are to seize that opportunity, now is the time to start thinking about the future we want to see.
In a public policy environment where the focus will surely be on health and well-being, how do we ensure that access to good quality, affordable housing is the cornerstone upon which all other policy interventions are laid?
If work and patterns of work change as many are predicting as a result of this crisis, can we ensure that the homes we build are designed to allow those who live in them to access opportunities across the whole economy?
Outside of the major urban centres in the south-east, Wales’ economy is among the poorest in Europe.
Our population is among the oldest and suffers from long-term ill health.
“There’s a need for a hard-hitting programme of economic stimulus more than ever – it is absolutely unthinkable that the building of new homes and the renovation of existing stock wouldn’t be part of that answer”
The economic fall-out from COVID-19, already predicted to be the worst depression in over a century, will be devastating to communities across the nation.
There’s a need for a hard-hitting programme of economic stimulus more than ever – it is absolutely unthinkable that the building of new homes and the renovation of existing stock wouldn’t be part of that answer.
How can we ensure we can gear up and be ready to go, with a supply chain at the ready and an army of workers primed to spring into action?
But this policy debate is not yet won.
The airwaves abound with the sound of politicians opining that the unparalleled government interventions of the past month will have to be paid for.
Knowing that the austerity of the past 10 years has brought many people and communities to their knees, the same mistakes cannot be allowed to happen again.
The government surely cannot turn off the tap of funding and support just at the time they will be needed most. We need to be on the front foot in making the case to both national and local governments.
And yet there is hope.
Millions of people have turned to the welfare system for support in their hour of need and surely now see the reality of a dysfunctional safety net and a clear case for reform.
We have found housing and accommodation for many thousands of rough sleepers – surely it is unthinkable that when the immediate health crisis ends they will be evicted back onto the streets.
Our health service which was overstretched has geared up rapidly to deal with an influx of seriously ill patients – how can it be allowed to run so near to the knuckle in the future?
In 2021 we have elections to the soon to be renamed Welsh parliament.
In the aftermath of the biggest public health and economic crisis of our lifetime, it has to be unthinkable for political parties not to offer a genuinely far-reaching and radical programme to address the weaknesses that COVID-19 has illustrated for all to see in our society.
Frankly though, the challenges we face in Wales are too big for any politician or single political party.
It is incumbent on all of us to raise our voices in search of a bigger and better future that we would be proud to leave to the next generation.
Stuart Ropke, chief executive, Community Housing Cymru
