It’s been a few weeks now since our latest member of staff, Steffan Evans joined the team at TPAS Cymru. In the week of the TAI conference Steffan takes an opportunity to reflect on his time in the post to date and sets out his hopes for the upcoming 12 months.

It’s hard to believe that it has already been three weeks since I started at TPAS Cymru. It’s been a busy period. Between finding my feet at the organisation, visiting the team at our North Wales office and getting to know some of our members, time really has flown. Having had a taste of some of the work undertaken by the team, I’m really looking forward to what the following months have in store.

In terms of my own background, I have spent the last three and a half years undertaking a PhD at the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. My PhD has explored the development of divergence in social housing regulation between Wales and England, as a result of devolution and (hopefully!) I’ll be submitting my thesis in the next few weeks. My research has allowed me to develop a detailed understanding of social housing regulation in Wales and has given me an awareness of broader housing and devolution issues. I’m looking forward to developing these skills further over the next few months as I gain more experience here at TPAS Cymru.

I’m also particularly looking forward to getting out and about and getting to know our members and tenants across Wales. Having spent a period working on social housing issues from an academic perspective, I’m really eager to get to see some of the great work that is being done within the sector in Wales on a day to day basis.

I’ll be attending this week’s TAI conference with our director, David Wilton and I’m hoping to get to know as many of you as possible. I will be based predominantly in the South Wales office but will be working and delivering across Wales, so make sure you come and say hello wherever you’re from. I’ll also be delivering a session on the Wales Act 2017 at the conference, so if you’re interested in the Brexit, devolution and housing then be sure to visit the session.

If you can’t make it to the conference, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. It will be great to meet as many of you as possible over the coming months!

 

Steffan Evans, Participation Officer (South Wales)