Welsh housing workforce overburdened with non-housing responsibilities, warns CIH Cymru director

Social housing workers in Wales are struggling to deliver services that should be provided by external agencies, the national director of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Cymru has said.

Speaking at the TAI 2025 conference in Hensol, Matt Dicks said: “Housing professionals are often being asked to sing, write, play and dance a theme tune without being given the instrument or the orchestra with which to do it.”

Dicks made the analogy in reference to the CIH Cymru’s latest sector snapshot report published today, which revealed that expanding workloads are negatively impacting the mental health and wellbeing of two thirds of more than 300 survey respondents.

One housing professional wrote: “I think that the expectation of social housing providers is ridiculous, and we have gone far beyond having to deliver traditional landlord services.

“Housing staff make up for the shortfall in service provision by social services, police, etc. Housing staff are left carrying multiple issues within our stock because other agencies are able to walk away. There should be far more accountability by those service providers and more collaborative working.

“I think the role of social housing providers in Wales should be completely reviewed and re-specified to ensure that we and all other agencies are clear about what our function actually is, not what they like to think it is. The expectation is massive and ever growing, and staff are being subjected to more and more abuse because they are unable to meet the expectations exponentially.”

Dicks said: “It is time that we not only thought about providing the homes we need but ensuring our workforce is well resourced and supported to deliver the ambition we share with Welsh government of addressing the housing and homelessness emergency in Wales.”

Meanwhile, 83% of the survey’s participants reported a lack of confidence or uncertainty that the Welsh government will reach its target of 20,000 new affordable homes by 2026.

>>See also: Welsh government’s final budget insufficient to meet social housing targets, warns CIH

Insufficient funding, inefficiencies in the planning system and a lack of focus from the government were the main causes for concern, according to Dicks.

Speaking at the morning’s ministerial address, Jayne Bryant, cabinet secretary for local government and housing, said: “We remain committed to delivering 20,000 additional homes for rent in the social sector. [The sector has] worked really hard to bring forward a really strong pipeline of homes, despite some significant challenges.

“This, alongside a really positive budget position that I’ve secured, will help deliver the homes that we need. At the end of last year, I announced an additional £10m to kick-start the development of 16 new affordable housing schemes, creating 238 new homes before the end of this senate term.

“I’ve delivered record levels of investment, our highest ever annual budget of £411m for social housing in this financial year, an additional £81m compared to last year.”