When it was confirmed that Law himself would cover housing and regeneration as well as local government, planning and other environmental issues, it seemed housing would become just another responsibility competing for attention in an already overburdened portfolio.
Sitting back in his modest-sized, upper floor office in the temporary assembly building looking out onto Cardiff Bay - itself an impressive example of area regeneration in action - Law admits he's probably got about the biggest brief of all the cabinet secretaries.
Of the £8.1 billion that the assembly has to spend, Law will take charge of a huge £3.2 billion slice. Just £288.5m is for housing in 1999/2000, including £201m for local authorities, £68m for housing associations and almost £8m shared by voluntary organisations, rent officers and home improvement agencies. Not much when the Welsh house condition survey has just revealed that 98,000 homes, or 8.5 per cent of the Welsh housing stock, are still unfit, with an estimated repairs bill of £1.1billion - £162m for social housing.
But as you would expect from someone who is also a member of the Institute of Public Relations, Law is quick to stress that "housing is a very important part" of his brief.
"The most excluded people are the people without homes," he says, also keen to show his understanding that housing is part of a wider agenda of social exclusion and community regeneration.
Law was not the most obvious candidate to take charge of housing. Aside from his duties as a former Blaenau Gwent councillor, his biography marks him out more as a health or home affairs man, having been chair of Gwent NHS Trust and a JP.
A more likely candidate might have been Jane Davidson, former head of social affairs at the Welsh Local Government Association, and now the assembly's deputy presiding officer. Jane Hutt, who set up the Tenant Participation Advisory Service in Wales, is another housing person. Curiously enough, she is now the assembly's health and social services secretary, and also leads on social exclusion.
But coming to a subject with a fresh approach is no bad thing.
Although the PR man inside him peppers his answers with references to partnership and the "team effort" between local authorities and housing associations, Law appears to feel genuine passion for his portfolio.
"I want to tackle the deprived communities and social exclusion. We have got to make a difference," he says, inspired, perhaps, by his contact with tenants in the more downtrodden parts of his former council area.
It is this frontline approach which looks set to inform his policy decisions, he adds. "I am not going to sit up here issuing edicts. I believe in being out in the community. My doors are open and I like to talk to people - I am hands on, very much so."
As far as policy goes, Law is still very much dependent on briefings from his civil servants. When asked about the sticky issue of a housing needs survey for Wales, he virtually reads the official line from the briefing sheet that has been prepared for him. A working group on housing needs assessment was established in 1997, he says, and he concurs with the group's finding that it would not be cost effective to aggregate local area surveys into a national picture.
The issue of a national housing strategy is much more positive. A framework for a strategy is being drawn up by the national consultative forum on housing and Law says will soon be taking the document to the Welsh cabinet. The strategy will embrace all the housing sectors and ensure there is "high quality social housing managed efficiently and effectively", Law says. "We have not always had that."
There will also be an emphasis on building communities in areas where people want to live. "Quite frankly, in the past that's not been the case," he says. "There are areas where we have got rows of empty houses which we are in the process of demolishing, and developments which people have described as little more than ghettos. We have to recognise that we need to have sustainable communities. We want to give people quality of life."
Law makes no bones about saying that to achieve this quality vision, Welsh local authorities are going to have to face up to their bete noire of stock transfer. He envisages transfers to "housing trusts" in a bid to tackle deprivation and cash shortages.
Pushed on what he will do if local authorities refuse to consider this option, however, and he is less sure of himself. There will be no compulsion, he says, but needy authorities should not dismiss it out of hand. "It's really a matter for tenants and local authorities. We have to enable people to go down that path if they wish to," he says. "I don't expect to see housing trusts appearing throughout Wales, but I would expect to see it considered as an important option."
Source
Housing Today
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