You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
From the archive – MPs criticise government for forcing mentally ill people on to streets
Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week five, 15 and 25 years ago
25 years ago
MPs criticised the government for forcing mentally ill people on to the streets because it could not decide who should house them.
The Commons health committee revealed that a man had been found dead in a London canal while the local council and health authority argued over who should pay for his accommodation.
The committee slammed the Department of the Environment and the Housing Corporation for refusing to provide revenue funding for supported housing. The committee called for accommodation for people with mental health issues to be paid for through the special needs management allowance.
In their report on the care of seriously mentally ill people, they also suggested that the Department of Health could contribute towards revenue costs.
15 years ago
The number of homes being built for vulnerable people was set to be halved because of uncertainty over Supporting People funding.
Housing associations warned that the “outrageous” shortfall in new homes predicted over the next two years was stacking up major problems in the future.
Neil Hadden, assistant chief executive at the Housing Corporation, said there was around £147m available for new supported housing over 2004/05 and 2005/06, representing 2,215 homes or bed spaces. However, that figure was only about 3% of the programme, in contrast to the 9-12% that the corporation would normally expect.
Mr Hadden also confirmed that the corporation had received fewer bids for supported housing development funding than in previous years.
“That was good in one respect because the uncertainty over the availability of Supporting People grant means that we would not want to make allocations to schemes that did not have guarantees of revenue support where that was needed,” he said. But he also admitted that there would be “a bit of a hiatus” in the provision of new supported housing.
Picture: Getty
Five years ago
London mayor Boris Johnson was scrabbling to persuade the capital’s housing associations to increase their commitments under the £1.25bn Affordable Homes Programme.
Four of London’s biggest landlords said City Hall representatives had asked them to increase their bids.
Some associations submitted reduced bids for the 2015/18 programme, compared with the previous one, because of fears that councils would nominate tenants who could not afford to pay the higher affordable rents.
The new programme introduced two rental products in London, fixed at 50% and 80% of market rates. In the previous programme, landlords charged an average of 65%. Many expressed concern about a lack of flexibility under the new regime.
