The government has announced an important development in addressing the quality of supported housing.
Supported housing plays a vital role in delivering better life outcomes and improved wellbeing and health for many vulnerable people across the country. In recognition of its importance, the Government is investing £11.5 billion in much-needed supply through the Affordable Homes Programme, which includes delivery of new supported housing for older, disabled and other vulnerable people.
However, there is a minority of landlords who charge high rents for poor-quality accommodation and little or even no support. It is the Government’s intention to bring forward measures to put an end to unscrupulous landlords exploiting some of the most vulnerable in our society.
The Government's intention is to take forward a package of measures that will include:
• Minimum standards for the support provided to residents to ensure residents receive the good quality support they expect and deserve so they can live as independently as possible and achieve their personal goals;
• New powers for local authorities to better manage their local supported housing market to ensure that rogue landlords cannot exploit the system to the detriment of vulnerable residents and at the expense of taxpayers; and
• Changes to Housing Benefit regulations to seek to define care, support and supervision to improve quality and value for money across all specified supported housing provision.
The Government will introduce any measures requiring legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows, and work closely with local government, sector representatives, providers and people with experience of supported housing to develop these measures to ensure they are fit for purpose, deliverable and minimise unintended consequences for the providers of much needed, good quality supported housing.
Alongside these proposed measures, the Government has announced that it will provide £20 million for a Supported Housing Improvement Programme. Funding for this three-year programme will be open to bids from all local authorities and to build on the clear successes of the supported housing pilots- who were able to drive up the quality of accommodation and support to residents. They also improved value for money through enhanced scrutiny of Housing Benefit claims to verify that costs were legitimate and reasonable.
Justin Tomlinson MP said:
"The Supported Housing Improvement Programme will be vital to drive up quality in the sector in some of the worst affected areas immediately, while the Government works to develop and implement longer term regulatory changes.
This package of proposed measures will enable us to tackle poor quality and poor value for money in supported housing and to improve outcomes for individuals, while preserving good quality provision run by responsible providers."
