A disaster in the making

Supported housing providers finally have a degree of certainty about the future -unfortunately it was not the news many of them would have been looking for; life looks set to be very, very difficult.

First came an announcement from the government which created more questions than answers. A new funding arrangement, but how much and how will it be distributed? A ring-fence, but for how long? A delay on the local housing allowance cap for supported housing tenants until 2019, but no real reassurance on how new developments can be funded beyond that date.

Then, just as providers were no doubt trying to rebalance the books in light of Damian Green’s announcement, came a second piece of news that will throw all of the calculations made to date out of the window - the cap will apply to all supported housing tenants when it comes into effect.

“Hundreds of thousands more people will instantly find the help they get with their housing costs will not be enough to cover all of their rent.”

There’s no way of sugar coating this - the news is extremely worrying and risks having a serious and widespread impact on the most vulnerable people in society and the organisations that provide accommodation for them.

First and foremost it means when the cap comes into effect hundreds of thousands more people will instantly find the help they get with their housing costs will not be enough to cover all of their rent.

This begs the question why? In general needs social housing the LHA cap will apply to those who took on a new tenancy after April 2016 and this is unpalatable enough. But the often higher rents in supported housing mean the potential ramifications are even more severe for these tenants.

The government says the new funding arrangement has been brought into place to remedy this. But with no certainty over the scale of funding this will hardly be reassuring to those providers looking to make their numbers stack up in the long-term. It feels rather like giving with one hand and taking with the other.

We’ve already spoken to organisations who are saying the announcement will lead to them seriously considering dropping out of providing supported housing altogether. This is deeply worrying, particularly in what is a rapidly ageing population. It also undermines the extremely positive role we know specialist housing plays in minimising demand on our over-stretched health and care services - something we will be bringing experts and professionals together to explore in detail at our Homes Fit for Ageing Conference next month.

Until we have a lot more clarity about the level of funding and the mechanism for allocating it there is no security for providers of supported housing or those who so desperately need it. We might even see a reduction in the overall amount of supported housing which would spell disaster for vulnerable people.

The inescapable truth is that the government must, at the very least, reconsider this retrospective application and at least bring it into line with the arrangements for the wider social sector if we are going to be able to meet the need for housing with support.

Melanie Rees, head of policy, Chartered Institute of Housing