NHF calls for regulated body in supported housing review

The membership body has released its final recommendations for the future funding of supported housing, after consulting with landlords over the last few months.

The consultation was in response to the government’s decision to cap housing benefit in social housing at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates by 2018.

Housing bodies have warned that the cap would put vulnerable people’s accommodation at risk, with some future schemes already scrapped following the announcement.

In its submission to ministers, the NHF said the government should continue to fully fund rents and service charges through housing benefit and Universal Credit.

For supported housing providers to remain eligible for additional housing benefit funding, they would need to be registered with an independent regulatory body, which would place checks on providers.

The body would assess eligibility for extra funding beyond general needs, maintain a register of providers and investigate fraud. The NHF suggested that existing regulators might be able to take on this regulation role, to prevent the need to set up a new body.

In addition, the NHF recommended the funding of support costs through a central government budget, fed into by different government departments.

The departments would set “the outcomes they would like to see for the money that they are putting in”, the NHF said.

It also called for the “threat” of the government’s LHA cap to be removed. Ministers earlier this year delayed LHA cap for supported housing providers, so that the policy would affect tenancies starting from 2017, as opposed to the planned 2016.