Welsh lessons to end homelessness

Andy Burnham has committed to bring an end to homelessness in England. Councils already struggling to meet their housing obligations and ministers setting out how to make this promise real could benefit from a trip to Wales, where rough sleeper numbers are estimated to have fallen from more than 400 in 2019 to 143 in March 2026 due to sustained action and political will.After the initial Covid pandemic policy of ‘everyone in', with a scramble to house rough sleepers in unused hospitality beds, English policy reverted to policies that put ‘non-priority' residents back out on the streets.In Wales, then housing minister Julie James set the ambitious goal of ending all forms of homelessness and where it cannot be prevented, to ensure it is rare, brief and unrepeated. Welsh councils were instructed to suspend ‘priority' rules and to submit prevention-led plans for rapid rehousing.Capital was made available for social housing, but also to expand better-quality temporary accommodation through the Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme. This has taken place alongside regulation of the private rented sector through the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, implemented in 2022, and continued funding for housing-related support.When I became Monmouthshire's cabinet member responsible for housing and homelessness services in May 2022, we had a crippling budget overspend on bed and breakfast for homeless households, mostly single adults. At the same time, some private sector landlords were threatening to leave the market, sending tenants to us, and were able to refuse tenants receiving benefits. We were spending eye-watering amounts to keep people in often poor-quality tourism accommodation.Currently, we have nobody in bed and breakfast, replacing this situation with better quality leased or purchased homes and shared accommodation.We are purchasing and refurbishing empty homes for temporary accommodation and providing homes directly for the first time since the stock transfer in 2008. Other Welsh councils have bought and converted student blocks and hotels.The focus on prevention and additional resources, together with the longer notice periods in private lets has worked. Three in four households threatened with homelessness are prevented from becoming homeless through interventions such as family mediation, rent top-ups, negotiation with landlords and money advice.This expanded service is now partly funded through the council tax surcharges on empty and second homes we introduced in 2023.There has been no magic wand, but a series of incremental changes.A care home in Chepstow scheduled for redevelopment, was refurbished as temporary accommodation with single rooms, spacious shared facilities and on-site support and security. Residents vacated cramped rooms above a pub which has now returned to serving visitors.We are purchasing and refurbishing empty homes for temporary accommodation and providing homes directly for the first time since the stock transfer in 2008. Other Welsh councils have bought and converted student blocks and hotels.There is still much to do. We are a county of attractive historic towns and stunningly beautiful countryside where average house prices are nine times people's earnings. But we have a growing unmet demand for affordable homes and a shortage of sites.Quite properly, Welsh regulatory frameworks tightly manage flood risk and ensure high quality in our social housing. We work within those frameworks to meet the need for social housing and bring more housing into our town centres.We are continuing to be ambitious. Monmouthshire's replacement local development plan, currently wending its way through the planning inspectorate's scrutiny, is based on 50% affordable, 100% net zero housing on strategic sites which will be sustainable additions to our market towns.We still have challenges: we don't have enough supported housing for people with complex needs and there is a waiting list for the excellent Housing First support programme.Supported housing rents, built around housing benefit rules, do not easily help people into work and independence and Universal Credit housing allowances do not meet Monmouthshire private rents. Many of the levers that affect our local housing market sit with Westminster, not Cardiff.Some people still spend longer than ideal in temporary accommodation, in part because turnover of social homes is falling and we do not have enough temporary accommodation in some towns for our aim of keeping people connected to their community.We still have a handful of rough sleepers who have either refused or are not eligible for council-provided accommodation, sometimes because they have come from neighbouring authorities in England. But we now have a homelessness system in Monmouthshire that provides individual, trauma-aware support and good quality temporary housing at a cost that council taxpayers can afford.Implementation of the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Act 2026 takes intervention further upstream. It includes obligations for all agencies to work together to prevent homelessness, a focus on ensuring that housing is part of the planning for care-experienced young people and closer liaison with prisons.We are waiting to see how the new Government will support implementation of the Act and what the Plaid Cymru manifesto commitment to ‘a right to housing' will mean in practice.During the pandemic, Julie James pledged to end homelessness in Wales. In 2026, we are getting there.Sara Burch is cabinet member for rural affairs, housing and tourism at Monmouthshire CC

Title

HOMELESSNESS

Welsh lessons to end homelessness

By Cllr Sara Burch | 14 October 2026

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