Landlords to receive hate crime and anti-racism training

Private landlords and agents are being offered hate crime and anti-racism training so they can offer ‘appropriate support’ to their tenants, the BBC reports.

The training is being offered by the Welsh government as part of the continuous professional development of landlords they need to be a licensed landlord. The training will begin later this month.

However, the Welsh Conservatives claim that the Labour-run government should be focused on building new homes to rent and buy, rather than ‘virtue signalling’.

Non-mandatory training will be free of charge

The non-mandatory training will be free of charge to agents and landlords and a Welsh government spokesperson said: “We are providing Rent Smart Wales with £25,000 to deliver anti-racism training to landlords so they are able to respond quickly and offer appropriate support where tenants have experienced racism and/or hate crime.”

Janet Finch-Saunders, the housing spokeswoman for the Welsh Conservatives, said: “We know that Labour are letting down the people of Wales by only building half of the homes we need.

“With 90,000 households on social housing waiting lists, this policy represents another distraction.

“Yet again, the Labour government are focusing on costly virtue signalling vanity projects as opposed to delivering the housing Wales desperately needs.”

‘Turn to them if they are experiencing any form of racism or hate crime’

The Welsh government spokesperson explained that landlords and agents “will be able to show prospective and existing tenants that they have completed this training to provide assurance to their tenants that they can turn to them if they are experiencing any form of racism or hate crime.”

The spokesperson added: “An added benefit of this training would be that landlords and agents who are the victims of racism or hate crime themselves would know where to seek help and support.”

The annual population survey in June 2021 found that Wales has a Black, Asian and minority ethnic population that makes up 4.9% of people living there.

The biggest ethnic minority communities are found in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport.

And national hate crime statistics, which is data published by the Home Office, shows that in Wales hate crimes rose by 15.7% between 2019 and 2020.

Over that period, hate crimes with race as a motivating factor grew by 15.9% 3,052 cases.

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) say they encourage and support landlords who want to broaden their professional skills and knowledge with accredited training.

The organisation told the BBC that having more aware, better-trained landlords can help ‘deliver quality private rented accommodation that Wales desperately needs’.