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More than a dozen supported housing tenants ‘not receiving services’ paid for, council claims
More than a dozen supported housing tenants in Gloucester are not being provided the services that have been paid for, Gloucester City Council claims.
In a response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Inside Housing, Gloucester Council said it has identified 15 residents of specialist supported housing (SSH) managed by Westmoreland Supported Housing Association who were not receiving the care they were supposed to be receiving to justify the higher rates of housing benefit.
It said it was now attempting to reclaim the money from Westmoreland.
A spokesperson for Westmoreland told Inside Housing it was continuing to “discuss the matter with the council and [has] no further comment at this stage”.
Gloucester Council, as reported by Inside Housing, had previously accused the housing association of not providing certain services to tenants, despite billing for them through housing benefit.
Westmoreland told Inside Housing at the time that it was “contesting” those claims.
Previously, Inside Housing was aware of two vulnerable adults affected by this dispute.
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Westmoreland, which is currently non-compliant with the Regulator of Social Housing’s standards on governance and financial viability, operates a business model that involves leasing homes from private investment funds.
The funds, which include real estate investment trusts Civitas and Triple Point and private fund Henley Social Investments, own the vast majority of Westmoreland’s homes and lease them to the housing association on a long-term basis.
The association makes monthly inflation-linked payments to the funds, which it pays for using income from housing benefit. It is obliged to continue making these payments whether or not it can recover the rent from tenants.
To receive enough rent to pay its creditors, Westmoreland relies on rents for SSH being exempt from the limits ordinarily placed on social housing rent levels.
However, after an investigation by Gloucester Council, the local authority decided that the level of care being provided is not enough for the homes to qualify as SSH and so has withdrawn the exemption.
In letters sent to the affected tenants – seen by Inside Housing – it informed them that benefit payments were more than £200 a week too high over a 12-month period.
The letters said the funds “will be recovered by deducting it from the next payment due to your landlord”.
Westmoreland is one of a number of housing associations that rely on homes leased from investment funds to continue operating.
Earlier this month, the regulator published a report criticising this model and saying it is “hard to see” how any housing association operating it could be compliant with its standards.
