Work undertaken

Following the successful outcome of the bid for 2002/2003 Social Housing Management Grant Programme funding in April 2002, the first formal meeting of the Partnership Steering Group was held on 18 June 2002.

The members of the Steering Group are currently as follows:

Meetings were held in 2002 to plan the half day awareness raising seminar on the 12th September 2002, which was the first major milestone of the project. Action points for the BME housing training programme and strategy development milestones were also discussed and agreed. The seminar programme consisted of speakers from the Commission for Racial Equality, Wales BME Housing Project, North Wales Race Equality Network, the National Assembly for Wales and the pressure group Cymuned.

Following the Steering Group meeting in November 2002, a letter inviting expressions of interest was sent out to 18 consultants/trainers, which led to the receipt of two formal tenders for the work. The draft strategy, compiled by the consultants, in consultation with the Partnership members, Local Authorities and other interested parties, was discussed, and feedback to the consultants agreed.

The end of project seminar, held at Conwy Business Centre in April 2003, was well attended, with representatives of Housing Associations, Local Authorities and the voluntary sector present. The main purpose of the seminar was to summarise the project history, to give feedback on the success of the initial training programme, and to present the four themes contained within the draft regional housing BME strategy.

The second phase of the training programme was completed, having been funded from the Associations’ own training budgets in 2003/2004. The Partnership members completed the consultation on the draft regional strategy, and the internal work detailed in the draft Race Equality Plans, by February 2004. The Associations’ Boards of Management then formally adopted the regional strategy and their respective individual Race Equality Plans in March 2004.

Funding was secured from the Welsh Assembly Government to develop and pilot consultation methods which take into account the rurality of North Wales, in order to consult the public on the Partnership’s draft BME Strategy prior to the Welsh Assembly Government’s target publication date of April 2004. The Strategy seeks to ensure that all Housing Associations  are working to make  North Wales  a place  where people from BME communities will be safe and accepted.

Following a public tendering process, PS Consultants were commissioned by NWREP to assist the Partnership with the consultation project. They worked in North Wales in the Spring of 2004 carry out a door to door survey of nearly 250 BME community members living in North Wales, employing a locally recruited and trained survey team to undertake the survey. The results of the survey influenced the final BME Housing strategy.

The joint launch in April 2004 at the Conwy Business Centre by Janet Ryder (AM) of the two Regional Black, Minority Ethnic Housing strategies, developed by the North Wales Registered Social Landlord Equality Partnership (NWREP) and the North Wales Local Authorities Black, Minority Ethnic (BME) Housing Partnership, demonstrates a commitment to working together to promote racial equality in housing in North Wales.

Since April 2004 NWREP has been regularly meeting to work together on implementing the BME Housing Strategy. In May 2005 a well attended review seminar was held to examine what had been achieved and what changes were required to the strategy, which will subsequently be revised in 2006. The speakers were followed by workshop sessions, which gave delegates an opportunity to discuss the issues raised within the North Wales region context.

Most of the action points from the 2004 BME Housing Strategy have been completed and the outstanding issues are being jointly addressed with Tai Pawb, the all Wales BME Housing organisation.