There is concern that the Welsh Government’s 20,000 affordable homes target won’t be met by the March 2026 deadline after a Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru report showed many teams were at breaking point due to stretched budgets and expanding workload.

The survey found that although 77 per cent of housing professionals were motivated to work within the sector by a desire to help people and end homelessness, 68 per cent of local authority respondents and 39 per cent of housing association respondents said that their work was having a negative impact on their mental health.

A lack of funding, combined with increased expectations of the housing sector from the Welsh Government around supply, decarbonisation and new homelessness legislation were cited as reasons for rising workloads in housing teams, creating further pressure on already finite resources. 

As a result of concerns over current levels of funding and resource, a large majority of respondents to the survey said that they lacked confidence that the Welsh Government’s 20,000 new low-carbon social homes target will be met by its own deadline of March 2026. An overwhelming 82 per cent of respondents from local authorities are not confident or unsure the target will be met.

When asked in the survey what the single change could be that would improve the impact and efficacy of services, respondents agreed that an increase in funding levels to increase the supply of affordable homes would make the change the sector needed to see.

This would ensure that everyone can access an affordable home and that housing professionals could provide adequate support to enable individuals and families to thrive in their homes and in their communities.  

CIH Cymru has written directly to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government Jayne Bryant with the sector snapshot report findings, highlighting the critical importance of government intervention on several fronts.

Matt Dicks, national director of CIH Cymru said: “We need to invest more and look beyond this political cycle – to enshrine a right to a safe, affordable and sustainable place to call home into Welsh law. That’s the mechanism through which we change the paradigm and ensure housing professionals get the tools they need to do their job.”