More, better and affordable homes – our time at TAI 2024

Sharing our housing work with colleagues from across Wales

This week, we joined over 200 delegates, staff and exhibitors at the Vale Resort for the Chartered Institute of Housing’s 2024 conference.

As one of the event’s exhibitors, we enjoyed spending time networking with colleagues from across the housing sector and sharing information about our new housing projects taking place over the next three years.

It was also a chance to take stock and discuss hot topics in the housing sector through the packed programme of sessions, kicked off by Julie James, Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government, and Planning. The minister highlighted the importance of continuity and said the right to adequate housing would eventually be enshrined into Welsh law. She also said the Welsh government was hanging on to its 20,000 low-carbon social homes target “by the skin of our teeth”, but that “I am determined to hang on to it”. We’re looking forward to discussing our new housing research with the minister and her officials.

One of the other highlights was an interesting presentation by Emily Williams, Director of Research at Savills, who provided an overview of the latest forecasts for the economy and the housing sector. Among the most concerning points raised by Emily was the drop off of land being bought into the development process and the implications this may have on housing supply, in particular affordable housing supply over the coming years. 

The conference finished on a high with some interesting sessions on Thursday afternoon. Hashi Mohamed gave a stirring call to action about the need to view housing as the key political issue of our time, second only to climate change. He was followed by the former First Minister Mark Drakeford MS, who gave a thought-provoking reflection of his time as First Minister.