HCA urges bids for supported housing grant

The encouragement follows fears that housing associations could scrap future bids to build supported housing under the 2016/21 affordable homes programme.

The uncertainty has been caused by the government’s decision to cap housing benefit at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates in social housing from 2018, which providers say will make supported housing schemes unviable.

Caroline Cormack, team leader of affordable housing programmes and policy at the HCA, said associations should bid for funding under the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme, despite the doubts raised by the cap.

The government has said it will protect schemes affected by the cap, however so far it has only offered a one-year exemption for supported housing.

Speaking at a conference in London organised by Capita, Ms Cormack said: “If you’ve got schemes that you definitely want to do once everything is sorted out… do feel free to bid them in, even though you need to wait until the LHA position is sorted to actually know whether they’re going to be viable.”

Under previous programmes, housing providers have had to demonstrate they have sufficient funding to be viable.

However, Ms Cormack indicated a relaxation in approach and said the HCA would “engage with” providers if their schemes were rendered unviable by the cap.

The 2016/21 Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme will fund 8,000 specialised, low-rent homes.

Ms Cormack also left the door open for negotiations to increase the proportion of specialised housing or rent-to-buy homes in the programme.

She said: “If we are massively overbid for rent-to-buy or specialist rent, we can give the minister options and say, ‘if you want to stick to the current funding you get this much, or if you rearrange the priorities to do this’.

“But it’s a ministerial decision, and at the moment that was what was announced, and that’s what we’re aiming to deliver. But five years is a long time.”