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Funding specialised housing

This consultation, announced in November 2016, sought views on the design of the Government's new housing costs funding model for supported housing, as well as views on how funding for emergency and short term placements should work.

It covered the following areas:

  1. Devolved top-up funding to local authorities in England; and
  2. Funding for emergency and short term supported housing placements across Great Britain.

And, in December 2016, the House of Commons Library published a briefing paper, Paying for Supported Housing (opens new window) which explains the impact of the Government's policy of requiring rent reductions, and also the application of Local Housing Allowance caps, on the supported housing sector. It reports that the sector has argued that the measures threaten its viability. On 15 September 2016 the Government announced that LHA caps will apply in 2019/20.

The consultation closed on Monday 13 February 2017 and the Housing LIN submitted a response which can accessed below, along with the government's consultation documents.

On 1 May 2017, following its consultation, the CLG and W&P Committees published their report. They recommended that the government should “scrap plans to base rent allowances for supported housing tenants on rates used for claimants in the private rented sector“ stating that “it is inappropriate to use the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate and argue that a new Supported Housing Allowance, banded to reflect the actual cost of provision in the sector, should be introduced instead. The Committees note concerns that the Government’s proposed reform could lead to a serious shortfall in the availability of supported housing”. To access the Committees full report (click on the heading below).

Six months on, on 25 October 2017 the Prime Minister’s announced the government’s intention to ditch its LHA proposals for supported housing and the wider social housing sector. A week later, it issued a policy statement and 2 consultation papers that sets out a tailored approach to protect and encourage the supply of a wide range of supported housing. One on housing costs for sheltered and extra care accommodation, and one on housing costs for short-term supported accommodation. See 'Funding Supported Housing: Policy Statement and Consultation' for more information.