Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament
Y Pwyllgor Cyllid | Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2025-26 | Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26
Ymateb gan Taff Housing Association, | Evidence from Taff Housing Association,
Please outline your reasons for your answer to question 1 (we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
I am responding in my capacity as Head of Support Services, I am confident that the budget will impact other departments across the organisation, but I am not in a position to comment knowledgeably about it.
The HSG budget is vital to the provision of Support Services across Wales. As a Support provider we provide high quality services, that make a difference to hundreds of service users. Without a realistic budget to do this, we are not able to recruit skilled, experienced and committed workers to positions.
The budget should reflect the commitment of the Welsh Government to this sector, so that we are able to enable change and positive outcomes for those who need it. Our services are managing the impact of the housing crisis in Wales. We are being asked to provide intervention above that which has been commissioned, this is because vital services have been cut and access to those that are left usually have long waiting lists. We need to be able to offer an holistic service, where prevention underpins the services that we deliver.
I worry that there will come a point where the support collapses under the weight of demand, and this will only serve to create a bigger demand. There are a number of services desperately needed in housing, including safe and secure accommodation, support services that are skilled, experienced and committed and to achieve this we need to pay our colleagues their value and encourage them to enter and stay in the sector. The HSG budget should give providers confidence to deliver a service first time, that gives those that need it, when they need it. This would be a preventative measure.
We work within commissioned services, the budget that we are given is what we work with. There is little flexibility within these budgets and each commissioner will award to the most economically advantageous tender, this can put providers in a difficult position of choosing quality over quantity. There will be services that as an organisation we will not choose to bid for because the budget does not allow for us to provide the quality of service that should be expected.
Please outline your reasons for your answer to question 2 (we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
I believe that the organistion where I work will have worked hard to prepare for the financial year ahead. Commissioned support services will need to be financially viable for the business.
§ help households cope with inflation and cost of living issues;
§ address the needs of people living in urban, post-industrial and rural communities, including building affordable housing and in supporting economies within those communities?
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I am responding in my capacity as Head of Support Services, I am confident that the budget will impact other departments across the organisation, but I am not in a position to comment knowledgeably about it.
I feel that the Welsh Government could better spend funds on increasing the chances for those people living in poverty. People need good access to transport, so they can work, good access to health and well being services so that they feel well enough to work and contribute positively to their communities and good access to leisure facilities so that they feel included and good access to safe, secure and affordable housing so that they feel welcome and cared for in their community. Lots of barriers exist to prevent these opportunities for being accessible and leave people with no alternatives but to seek benefits and remain in their current status.
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My lived experience tells me that there are still a high number of people that are living in relative income poverty, there is still high demand for food banks, shops are disappearing from our highstreets. Local authorities are cutting services including leisure activities which are now considered a luxury, the worlds of people become smaller.
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I think that spending on preventative measures makes far more sense that reactive services, but these services need to be funded adequately, providers need to be given long term contracts so that thorough evaluations can be carried out. Currently short term contracts restricted by uncertain budget amounts give the services uncertainty and therefore they become reactive and quickly overwhelmed
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