Welsh brave Hart

Pride of place on the desk of Edwina Hart, Welsh Assembly minister for finance, local government and communities, is a large statue of the Grim Reaper. Despite its jolly red coat decorated in gold stars and the fact that it is placed between a jar of Roses chocolates and a plant, it is still the Grim Reaper.

Does its presence signify the death of social housing in Wales under Hart’s watchful eye? I am not quite brave enough to ask her this but judging from her strong views on the subject, I doubt it.

Hart was previously the assembly’s finance secretary and took over from local government and housing secretary Peter Law in October’s reshuffle. Her extended portfolio includes housing, social inclusion and community, local government, finance, regeneration and community safety. This extensive remit has led to the sector worrying that housing will be sidelined.

It is a view Hart does not share: "It is an unnecessary concern within the sector and I think it betrays a real lack of understanding of the significance involved in my portfolio, which enables me to bring together local government, core housing issues and finance. It actually makes it a very powerful portfolio, which housing will feature very prominently in."

Hart has now picked up Peter Law’s baton and has been hard at work developing the assembly’s proposals for a National Housing Strategy for Wales. The national housing strategy will be the framework on which the country’s housing policy will be formulated in the future. It is not due to be legislated on until September 2001.

The assembly held a plenary debate on the Better Homes for People in Wales draft consultatio n document this week and an amended, if necessary, version is expected to be issued early next month.

So how is the development of the strategy progressing? Hart says they are very pleased with it: "We do feel that it is a very positive contribution to all the discussions that have gone on about housing. I am very hopeful now that when we undertake consultation, we will receive very positive responses and that the policy’s development can carry on."

An "integrated and strategic approach to housing" is what she wants to achieve. Hart explains: "I do not like piecemeal approaches in life, I like everything to be quite clearly defined. I want us to know where we want to be in terms of our outcomes, which [include] ensuring that housing is of a far higher standard."

The draft budget she announced in October, which would help fund the national housing strategy, received a luke warm reception from the sector. Although the extra £77.98m allocated to housing got a thumbs up, it was questioned whether the budget really had the necessary resources to deliver the strategy.

Hart says: "I couldn’t say it would deliver everything because I would be lying, wouldn’t I? At the end of the day you need a lot more money than I have got to tackle the problems of housing in Wales. It makes a positive start which we can build on."

Communities First, the assembly’s initiative to tackle social disadvantage in up to 100 of Wales’ most deprived areas, was awarded an extra £15m over the next three years by the draft budget. This led to Hart being accused of only funding projects that tackle social deprivation and homelessness, while leaving housing out in the cold.

Not so, she says. "I can reassure [the sector] by my deeds when it comes to making funds available. They will see over the next 12 months as projects come to us, and as the sector engages, we will be very positive towards development and we won’t just be focusing on one area."

And Hart is also certain the housing budget can be joined up with the assembly’s other social strategies. She explains: "I am very confident because I control the money. That is probably the biggest advantage to the sector, the fact that with my finance hat on I look at all the cross cutting issues."

She adds: "I am in a key position to ensure that money moves with issues rather than fits into a straight jacket, [which is] sometimes the normal way governments are run."

So what is the future of social housing in Wales? Although an option that will be available to councils, Hart believes stock transfer is not the preferred method of bringing in new investment for social housing.

She explains: "I for one think stock transfer in some areas would not be welcome at all by individuals or local authorities. I am not anxious to put the big hand down telling them that they will [do it]."

And in a veiled attack on the government’s approach to transfer, Hart says: "I haven’t got any of the political hang-ups that certain people have that you must [transfer] because people dictate it as a good way of doing things. I am a democrat. I actually believe that local people and local authorities know what they want in these issues, so I go from that premise rather than dictating from the centre."

Arm’s-length companies do not get Hart’s support either. She says: "What I am very keen to do is allow local authorities to manage their stock. In some areas, local government has managed the housing stock very well and it is only because they had such poor settlements in the 18 years of Tory administration that there were problems."

The Private Finance Initiative is an option the assembly is still looking at, but she says they have not finished their deliberations.

The one thing Hart wants to achieve during her time as minister for finance, local government and communities is establishing the first Black and Minority Ethnic housing association in Wales. The assembly is currently conducting a £48,000 feasibility study into its launch and the development of a BME housing strategy.

She explains: "I want the BME community to have confidence that in Wales we do value ethnic diversity and all aspects of equality are encompassed into all areas of policy, including housing. "If we could get anywhere to doing something about that, it would be quite an achievement."