Setting the Scene – Pembrokeshire’s Strategic Priorities

Pembrokeshire County Council’s Corporate Strategy 2023-2028 and Well-being objectives

The Corporate Strategy, agreed by Council, sets out how the Council intends to deliver its key priorities for the county over the short and medium term. The 5 year rolling strategy will be reviewed and refreshed annually to take into account emerging issues and to respond to challenges as they arise.

Importantly, the Corporate Strategy is strongly tied to and led by Cabinet’s Programme for Administration 2023 which sets out the political aims and aspirations for the term of the Council’s Administration.

The Council’s Vision is working together, improving lives which sets out the ambition in terms of workforce and partnerships for Pembrokeshire County Council and describes our core purpose as an organisation.

The Corporate Strategy provides the overarching framework for the development of detailed medium-term service plans, unit plans (where appropriate) and ultimately individual performance and well-being plans. In doing so, the Council establishes a clear link between organisational strategic priorities and delivery, and supports and enhances an understanding of how everyone who works for the Council makes a vital contribution to the work of the organisation as a whole.

Under the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the Council is required to produce well-being objectives to demonstrate the contribution the Council will make towards the national well-being goals for Wales. Our Corporate Strategy is the vehicle through which the Council sets and expresses our well-being objectives. These are important in the sense that they provide a framework for all the work that we do.

Delivery of the Council’s programme is monitored through the Council’s Performance Management Framework which includes regular reporting of delivery against priority objectives and performance indicators, as well as financial and budgetary monitoring.

As part of the Corporate Strategy the Council has also developed 12 Well-being Objectives for the period 2023 – 2028. 9 objectives are focussed on Pembrokeshire as a whole addressing how the Council will improve the well-being of people and communities in Pembrokeshire and forming the contribution the Council will make towards the national well-being goals for Wales. A further 3 are focused around organisational improvement.

Although Housing touches most of the wide ranging corporate wellbeing objectives the list includes a key Housing Objective with a series of priority areas for attention:-

Housing

A3: We will enable the delivery of affordable, available, adaptable and energy efficient homes.

Rationale

Evidence shows that good quality housing is one of the main pillars of well-being.

Pembrokeshire, like many other counties, is experiencing an acute shortage of affordable housing which is resulting in a steep increase in homelessness.

We will not deliver on our ambitions around climate change unless we improve the energy efficiency of homes as 38% of electricity usage in the UK is from domestic users. This means we need to address the carbon footprint of all housing in Pembrokeshire, including specific duties to make our own stock carbon neutral by 2033.

We are producing a new housing strategy to meet the challenges of this agenda.

What we are going to do

Increase the supply of affordable homes to meet identified need
Accelerate housing delivery as well as work with partners to increase the range of affordable housing projects including the development of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and making available smaller plots of Council land for those seeking self-build opportunities
Directly develop up to 300 new build housing units by 2027 together with progressing with the development of our older people's sheltered housing and supported living provision
Work with colleagues in Regeneration to make our town centres great places to live once again through tackling the scourge of long-term empty properties
Prevent and alleviate homelessness
Work to ensure homelessness is prevented, brief, rare and unrepeated
Work with and support landlords in the private rented sector in the face of falling supply
Be responsive to the scale and pace of change in the space of private rental regulation and second homes / holiday let legislation while not losing sight of our goal to ensure Pembrokeshire remains a great place to live and visit.
Improving the quality and sustainability of our housing
Provide a high quality landlord service which listens and responds to the needs of our tenants.
Identify opportunities for the regeneration of our existing estates while also growing our housing stock and improving the environment.
Supporting people to live independently
Continue to improve our sheltered housing stock (including building new stock such as Haverfordia house)
Improve accessibility of housing through delivery of disabled adaptions for all housing tenures
Reduce the carbon footprint of Pembrokeshire’s housing stock by 2033
Work towards decarbonising our own housing stock as well as support private householders to improve the energy efficiency of their homes

The Housing Strategy is therefore firmly placed within the context of Pembrokeshire County Council’s considered approach to achieving its wellbeing goals and meeting the obligations under the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015.

Delivering the Programme for the Administration 2022-2027

Programme for the Administration sets out the overall priorities against which resources will be focussed over the period covered by the Housing Strategy. The Programme is set within the context of both national and local pressures being faced by Pembrokeshire County Council in delivering the services for which it is responsible. These include a backdrop of historic and continuing cuts in funding to local authorities and a significant increase in demand for services across key areas including Social Care and Housing where a growing older population and a shortage of affordable housing are just two examples of numerous pressures on Council resources. This contributes to a challenging environment for the Council in delivering both the strategic housing and landlord services for which it is responsible. At the same time, following on from the significant challenges faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there remain significant external pressures associated with the impacts of rising inflation and the cost of living crisis together with the implications of responding to the migration pressures caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

Against this backdrop the Vision set out within the Programme for the Administration centres on the following key aspirations:-

That:

Pembrokeshire is a great place to live, work and visit
Our young people and learners receive high quality education
Vulnerable people receive care and support through their life cycle
Appropriate housing is available, accessible and affordable
Pembrokeshire is a net-zero County, leading the way in green and blue energy renewables
Fewer families and households experience poverty and inequality
Our communities are active and thriving
We make a positive difference for future generations through the things we do today

Taking into account the prominence of the housing challenges being faced in Pembrokeshire the Programme for the Administration identifies a specific Vision for Housing from which the Housing Strategy’s vision has been taken:

Housing mission

We will be innovative in dealing with the housing challenges we face by ensuring the people of Pembrokeshire have access to a suitable home which is of a high standard, affordable and improves their quality of life

Well-Being of Future Generations Act

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 provides a framework and a vision for public bodies in Wales to consider in their decision making, including in the development and delivery of housing services that aim to improve the wellbeing of people and communities in Wales. The Act directs public bodies, including local authorities to think more about the long term, engage with people, communities and each other in order to anticipate and prevent problems and take a more joined-up approach to the planning and delivery of everything they do.

The overarching ambition of the Well Being of Future Generations is to ‘create a Wales that we all want to live in, now and in the future’. To make sure we are all working towards the same vision, the act puts in place 7 well-being goals.

The Well-being goals

A prosperous Wales
A resilient Wales
A healthier Wales
A more equal Wales
A Wales of cohesive communities
A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language
A globally responsible Wales

Public bodies are required to publish a statement when setting their well-being objectives explaining how each objective will help them achieve the goals and how it has applied the sustainable development principle. The Well-being of Future Generations Act places a well-being duty on specified public bodies to act jointly and establish a statutory Public Services Board (PSB). The Pembrokeshire PSB was established in April 2016 and is tasked with improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Pembrokeshire by contributing to the achievement of the Well-being Goals through the delivery of a Well-being Plan.

Pembrokeshire Public Services Board Wellbeing Plan

The Well-being Plan sets out how the PSB will work together to improve the well-being of people and communities in Pembrokeshire, now and in the future. The work of the Council is aligned with and contributes to the delivery of the overarching Well-being Plan for Pembrokeshire, which will be published by Pembrokeshire Public Services Board (PSB) in May 2023.

Following its Well-Being Assessment published in May 2022, the PSB identified four Well-being Objectives to act as the framework through which it aims to prioritise key areas of focus in its Well-being Plan. These are:

Support growth, jobs and prosperity and enable the transition to a more sustainable and greener economy
Work with our communities to reduce inequalities and improve well-being
Promote and support initiatives to deliver decarbonisation, manage climate adaptation and tackle the nature emergency
Enable safe, connected, resourceful and diverse communities

The Pembrokeshire PSB vision is ‘to unlock the power and potential of Pembrokeshire’s people and communities so that they are happy, healthy and live well, our communities are kind, safe, resourceful and vibrant, our economy is green and thriving, and our environment is protected and enhanced’.

Housing is critical to the well-being of individuals and communities and has a role to play in addressing the well-being goals set out in the Act as well as the objectives established by the Pembrokeshire PSB.

Pembrokeshire Recovery and Regeneration Strategy 2020-2030

The strategy combines our economic restart and recovery plans in response to the Covid 19 pandemic with our longer term renewal and regeneration approach and outlines our plans over the next five years to reach our pre-pandemic platform and move beyond it. The strategy highlights the role of housing in achieving the key objectives including in supporting regeneration of urban centres and responding to the growth in home working.

Importantly, the strategy also has to have regard to the wide-ranging and ambitious national housing policy frameworks of Welsh Government. Furthermore outlined in Appendix 1 are some of the key legislative and policy frameworks within which the Housing Strategy is also framed and the breadth of these linkages demonstrate the wide ranging influences and impacts of housing on our communities and residents.