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Cross-party groups of MPs call for change to supported housing plans
Two cross-party select committees have “strongly recommended” the government rethinks its plans to introduce a top-up fund for short-term supported housing controlled by councils.
The Communities and Local Government Select Committee and the Work and Pensions Select Committee chairs wrote to Heather Wheeler, the junior minister responsible for supported housing.
They called for the government to only fund emergency accommodation through a top-up fund and include all other short-term supported housing under its ‘sheltered rent’ plan.
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Under the government proposals a sheltered rent would apply to extra care and sheltered housing, but short-term accommodation up to two years, such as women’s refuges and homelessness shelters, would be funded through council grants.
The letter stated: “While a locally administered grant-based system could work well for emergency accommodation, anything longer than this should be funded through the same ‘sheltered rent’ model that the government has proposed for other types of supported housing.”
The committee chairs said Ms Wheeler had said the government was in favour of council grants for short-term supported housing but added it would only support this move for “very short-term accommodation, given the emergency nature of that provision and the inability of Universal Credit to reflect short-term changes in circumstance”.
The letter added: “Many providers are concerned that a system that relies on a local authority-administered, ringfenced top-up fund is insufficiently reliable in the long term and will lead to lower investment in the sector and, potentially, the closure of existing services.”
The committee is also “disappointed” that the government has not followed its recommendation to set up a separate funding model for domestic violence refuges, which it said are different to other types of supported housing and are “likely to require a national approach to provision”. The chairs have urged the government to reconsider this approach.
The government consultation on its supported housing plans closed last month. Housing associations and charities broadly supported the plans for long-term supported housing but raised concerns over the council top-up fund for short-term accommodation, with investors warning they would be less likely to fund this accommodation under such a model.
