AN INVESTMENT in social housing totalling £1.4bn over five years will regenerate some of Wales’ most deprived areas and create thousands of jobs, the Assembly Government said yesterday.

Around £1.4bn investment is being pumped into a scheme which aims to revive some of the poorest parts of Wales.

Leighton Andrews, Deputy Minister for Regeneration, launched a report commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government into the opportunities presented by the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS).

The Assembly Government requires local authorities and registered social housing landlords to upgrade their housing stock to meet WHQS by 2012 and to maintain this standard.

The WHQS-plus report by Savills highlights the opportunities this investment will create and how local benefits in jobs and training can be maximised.

The report covers 12 local authority areas in South Wales where more than 95,670 homes need to be upgraded. The £1.4bn will be spent over the next five years creating 2,700 job opportunities as well as supply chain business for local companies.

Speaking at the i2i housing regeneration conference yesterday at the Rhondda Heritage Park in Trehafod, Mr Andrews said, “The scale of the investment, the demand for new trainees and jobs and the fact that work will be taking place in the most disadvantaged communities could come together in a golden equation.

“But it won’t happen automatically. All of us from the Assembly Government outwards have a responsibility to work together to get this right if we are to deliver for our people and communities.”

Mr Andrews said organisations such as RCT Homes, Bron Afon in Torfaen and Monmouthshire Housing were about to start spending serious money and creating new jobs. He went on, “We’re now at a critical stage – within weeks tenants in the Rhondda Cynon Taf authority area will start to see the first wave of the largest investment programme in their homes in a lifetime. It is probably the best chance we’ve ever had to turn things around.

“The research undertaken for the WHQS-plus report will inform how we plan support services – from developing training programmes to small business support from mentoring trainees to providing on-going employment support.”

The report will also help contractors and small businesses to understand the scale and pace of the workload and the opportunities it presented.

Mr Andrews said he was “particularly keen” that the opportunities would enable existing social businesses to expand and encourage the creation of new enterprises.

He said a social enterprise in Leicester had become, with initial assistance from Leicester Housing Association, an independent, self- sustaining business, with an annual turnover of £8m, employing more than 140 staff, and reinvesting its profits back into regeneration areas.

Jocelyn Davies, Deputy Minister for Housing, said, “The achievement of WHQS is a good example of where a single policy implementation has a much broader impact on people’s lives, it may include not only improved living conditions but training and employment opportunities for their families, improved health and wellbeing, better educational attainment all of which are the building blocks for sustainable communities.

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