Policy & Campaigns

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Cymorth Cymru acts as the voice of the homelessness and housing support sector, influencing the development and implementation of policy, legislation and practice that affects our members and the people they support. We do this by running campaigns, conducting research, publishing policy reports, contributing to Welsh Government groups, appearing in the media, speaking to Members of the Senedd, giving evidence to Senedd Committees, and responding to government and parliamentary consultations.

Reports

We regularly produce reports about the issues affecting our members and the people they support. This includes reports focused on the views of people with lived experience, the impact of services, the experiences of frontline workers, and good practice from across the sector. We use these reports to campaign for change, speaking up on behalf of our members and lobbying for improvements to policy, legislation, practice and funding.

Our most recent reports can be found here.

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Campaigns

Cymorth works with our members, partners and experts by experience to campaign for improvements to policy, legislation, practice and public attitudes. Over the past few years we have led a variety of campaigns, focused on the Welsh Government’s annual budget, the Senedd elections and the Homeless World Cup.

Current campaign: Housing Matters – Welsh Budget 2025/6

In advance of the Welsh Government’s Budget for 2025/26, we are working with Community Housing Cymru to campaign for an increase in the Housing Support Grant, which funds the vast majority of homelessness and housing support services in Wales.

We have collected evidence about the significant pressures facing services and published a report titled ‘Housing Matters‘.

This has been circulated to the Welsh Government and Members of the Senedd, and will form the basis for our response to the Senedd Finance Committee inquiry into the Draft Budget.

You can find out more about our work on this campaign work here.

Update: £21m increase for the Housing Support Grant

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Mark Drakeford MS, has published the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget for 2025/26. The budget documents can be found on the Welsh Government’s website.

Key headlines for Cymorth Cymru members include:

  • Housing Support Grant: Last year’s £13m uplift has been baselined, and a further increase of £21 million has been awarded for 2025/26, which means the Housing Support Grant should total £203m next year – see notes below.
  • Social Care Real Living Wage: The Welsh Government has re-stated its support for the Real Living Wage for social care workers, however we understand the funding for this will remain un-hypothecated within the local government Revenue Support Grant.
  • Social Housing Grants: The capital funding for the Social Housing Grant and Transitional Accommodation Capital Programmes has been increased by £81m.
  • VAWDASV: Revenue funding has been increased by £1.2m to support the delivery of the VAWDASV Strategy, and capital funding appears to have been increased by £900k

Find out more here.

Representation

We represent our members and the people they support on a variety of Welsh Government and UK Government groups. These include:

  • Ending Homelessness National Advisory Board
  • Rapid Rehousing Task and Finish Group
  • Workforce Task and Finish Group
  • Strategic Outcomes Task and Finish Group
  • Housing Support Grant Outcomes Task and Finish Group
  • Expert Review Panel on legislative reform
  • Renting Homes Act Implementation Group
  • Tackling Poverty and Cost of Living Summits
  • Mental Health National Partnership Board
  • National Implementation Board for Drug Poisoning Prevention
  • VAWDASV Strategic Group
  • Learning Disability Ministerial Advisory Group
  • Learning Disability Independent Living Programme Task and Finish Group
  • DWP Strategic Partnership Board

Consultation Responses

We also respond to a number of government and parliamentary consultations on behalf of our members. We usually email our members or use our Networks to gather members’ views, but get in touch if you want to contribute to any upcoming consultations. Our most recent consultation responses can be found below.

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