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Homelessness support services at risk due to county council cuts, NHF warns
Safe supported housing for vulnerable people is under threat as cash-strapped county councils plan to decommission homelessness services, the National Housing Federation (NHF) has warned.
In a letter to homelessness minister Felicity Buchan, written alongside the Local Government Association and charity Homeless Link, the NHF expressed “serious concern” about the number of county councils proposing to shrink or scrap their homelessness services due to “intense financial pressure”.
“If these councils are not provided with sufficient funding, multiple supported housing services will be forced to close at a time when homelessness is rising sharply and there are existing pressures on the supported housing sector,” the industry body said.
In November, Inside Housing revealed that three English county councils – Devon, Hampshire and Leicestershire – were planning cuts to homelessness services.
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County councils sit above district and borough councils and are responsible for services including planning, education, transport and social care. They are not statutorily obliged to fund homelessness support.
Currently, just over half of England’s 21 county councils do so, but this number is likely to fall, as authorities face high inflation and growing demand for social care.
“These services support thousands of people to move away from homelessness each year, many of whom would otherwise be rough sleeping,” the NHF letter said. “Forcing councils into cuts will have a long-term negative impact on the public purse, as residents are forced into expensive temporary accommodation, hospital beds, or onto the street.”
The authors also warned that reduced homelessness support may also risk pushing out good quality housing association and voluntary providers, leading to an increase in “poor quality, non-commissioned exempt accommodation delivered by unscrupulous landlords”.
Ministers were urged to ringfence funding for housing-related support to ensure spending at least matches the £1.6bn per year allocated to local authorities in England in 2010, before cuts were introduced.
The letter also urged government to recommit to the £300m Housing Transformation Fund to support the development of specialist housing and the integration of housing into health and social care systems.
Inside Housing understands that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has received the letter and will respond in due course.
A DLUHC spokesperson said: “Councils are ultimately responsible for their own finances, but we recognise they are facing challenges. That is why we have announced a £64bn funding package to ensure they can continue making a difference.
“We have given councils over £2bn to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, including £1bn investment into the Homelessness Prevention Grant, which funds local authorities to work with landlords to prevent evictions and offer financial support for people to find a new home and move out of temporary accommodation. We will continue to work to end rough sleeping completely.”
At the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee meeting on 6 December, housing secretary Michael Gove said that “so far”, local authorities that have recently issued Section 114 notices, effectively declaring bankruptcy, “had failures of leadership, management and governance, and some have taken risks that were unmerited”.
However, he acknowledged that “local government, like other parts of the public sector and like government, is facing significant pressure”.
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