The Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, Jayne Bryant MS, has announced the appointment of Jemma Bere, Paul Bevan and Stephen Jones as members of the new Housing Regulation Independent Assurance Panel, from 19 May 2025 for a period of 3 years extendible for a further 3-year period.
The role of the Independent Assurance Panel (IAP) is to provide an independent view on how effectively the Regulatory Framework for Housing Associations Registered in Wales (the Regulatory Framework) is being implemented.
As members of the panel they will provide an independent view on the effectiveness of the Welsh Social Housing Regulatory Framework and act as a critical friend for the Regulator.
Biographies
Jemma Bere
Jemma is a social housing tenant and has served on the Board of Wales and West Housing Association for 10 years. She has a background in sustainable development, community engagement and regeneration and currently works for Keep Wales Tidy as the Policy & Research Manager.
She is originally from and still based in Mid Wales and has lived experience of social housing since 2008 after she adopted her brother and sister. Her previous roles include working for the Centre for Regeneration Excellence Wales and the Valleys Regional Park as well as her local Women’s Aid branch and the Citizens Advice Bureau. She is a qualified behaviour change practitioner and has over 15 years’ experience in social and environmental policy.
Paul Bevan
Paul’s career has been in homelessness and supported housing. Starting as a volunteer in a Swansea night shelter, he then worked for St Mungo’s in London in hostels for single homeless people. Returning to Wales he worked for Newport Action for the Single Homeless in support and resettlement roles, hostel management, tenancy-skills training, research and development. He moved to Charter Housing Association and Pobl into senior management roles in the growth of care and housing related support services for people with learning disabilities and mental ill-health, older and homeless people. He also worked in policy and research at Shelter Cymru, and co-ordinating Housing First for homeless people at Rhondda Cynon Taf Council.
He was Rough Sleeping Advisor for the National Assembly for Wales and advisor to its Homelessness Commission. He has been a member of the Assembly’s and the Welsh Government’s homelessness and rough sleeping working groups, a board member of Cymorth Cymru and chair of Cardiff Women’s Aid.
He is currently a freelance worker in homelessness and supported housing, an assessor and Wales’s representative for the Investing in Volunteers quality standard, a Lay Panel Member for Social Care Wales, and a Lay Representative for Health Education and Improvement Wales.
Stephen Jones
Following his graduation from Sheffield Hallam University with a BA (Hons) degree in Housing Studies in 1984, Steve progressed his housing career up to Director of Housing level within local authorities in England, rural Scotland, and back home on Ynys Mon, before working as a Group Director of Community Services with Clwyd Alyn HA traditional housing for ten years. Steve led the establishment of new rural LSVT housing association Tai Ceredigion in 2009, as its first Chief Executive; and went on to lead two voluntary merger projects with a supported housing charity and a traditional housing association, to become Group Chief Executive of Barcud Housing Group in 2020.
Steve is recognised as a rural housing, regeneration and homelessness specialist within Wales, having chaired national rural housing groups, and undertaken bilingual radio and tv interviews on behalf of the housing sector. Steve is committed to the principle of bilingual services and meaningful tenant engagement.
Since retiring as Group Chief Executive of Barcud Housing Group in 2023, Steve has been running his own bilingual housing and regeneration consultancy business, Arfor Consulting, alongside being a voluntary Coastguard Rescue Officer in Ceredigion.