Cross-Party Groups Of MPs Call For Change To Supported Housing Plans

Two cross-party select committees have “strongly recommended” the government rethinks its plans to introduce a top-up fund for short-term supported housing controlled by councils. The HCLG Select Committee and the Work and Pensions Select Committee chairs wrote to Heather Wheeler, the junior minister responsible for supported housing. They called for the government to only fund emergency accommodation through a top-up fund and include all other short-term supported housing under its ‘sheltered rent’ plan. Under the proposals a sheltered rent would apply to extra care and sheltered housing, but short-term accommodation up to two years, such as women’s refuges and homelessness shelters, would be funded through council grants. Read more on Inside Housing.

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Government Scraps Local Top Up For Supported Housing

Following the announcement that Government is dropping Local Housing Allowance rates from the funding mechanism for supported housing, the Committees have now received the full response from Government to their joint report. The response shows that the Government has also acted on the Committees' concerns that local authorities should not have to "top up" payment for supported housing, by introducing a new "sheltered rent" that means the cost of sheltered and extra care housing will be entirely covered by Housing Benefit or its replacement Universal Credit, in accordance with and actually going further than another of the committees' central recommendations. Read more on the Parliament website.

Majority Of Charity’s Supported Housing Under Threat From LHA Cap

Analysis by Frontier Economics found that if the freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates continues into 2020/21 and there is no top-up funding available, 91% of The Salvation Army’s homes would cost more to run than there is funding to cover them. This would mean the charity would be forced to raise income elsewhere. The Salvation Army is calling on the government to delay applying LHA rates to supported housing until April 2022 to allow time for a new solution to be found that “accurately reflects the true costs of safe and secure supported housing”, a spokesperson said. Read more on Inside Housing.

Things The Government Needs To Consider About Supported Housing Funding

1)      The funding framework has to be adequately sized and resourced, so that people do not fall into arrears on the transition to the new system

2)      Funding needs to reflect the actual costs of supported housing

3)      The long term funding, distribution and protection of the top up fund will be critical to sustain existing schemes, and ensure new development

4)      A different model is needed for crisis and emergency schemes

5)      Local authorities will need support to develop strong and robust partnerships to ensure effective commissioning of future schemes

6)      Older people have been excluded from welfare changes and there is an argument that, until the full roll out of UC, they should continue to be so

Read more on the CIH website.

Placeshapers Calls For National Supported Housing Fund

Placeshapers has rejected the government’s proposed Local Housing Allowance top-up fund in favour of a national supported housing allowance. A government consultation into the future of supported housing funding ends on 13 February. Instead of councils allocating funding, Placeshapers – which represents 116 “community-focused” landlords – is calling for a national supported housing allowance and cap that reflect the “true cost” of developing and maintaining supported housing. The government has proposed giving councils control of a supported housing top-up fund and an “enhanced role” in commissioning supported housing. Read more on the Placeshapers’ website.

The Variable Impact Of The LHA Cap Across Different Areas

The CIH, in collaboration with Riverside, have produced a research report on supported housing which covers:

·         The significant variation in the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap across the country

·         Rents and service charges for supported and sheltered housing are relatively consistent across the country for similar types of scheme.

·         A higher LHA cap would reduce the numbers of people affected by the new system

·         A relatively small increase in the LHA cap for older people living in sheltered housing would have a large impact in reducing the number of people reliant on the local top up

·         A higher LHA cap could go some way to simplifying the new system

Download the report from the CIH website.

Councils: National Funding Needed For Elderly Sheltered Housing

Local government leaders have called for a two-pronged approach to the funding of sheltered housing. The Local Government Association’s housing commission has said the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap is “not sufficient” to meet the higher rents charged in supported housing. The commission said older people in sheltered housing should receive payments from a nationally administered fund, whereas vulnerable people with support needs should partly be supported by grant funding from their local council. The government recently announced a top-up fund would be given to councils to cover any costs for supported housing tenants above the LHA rate. However, no further detail has been published on the amount of the fund or how it will be allocated. Download a copy of the LGA report from their website.

Ministers Consider New Supported Housing Duties

The government is considering imposing new legal duties on councils to provide supported housing, in a bid to safeguard a proposed housing benefit top-up fund. Ministers are considering requiring councils to provide “certain types of housing” in response to fears that local authorities would spend the extra cash earmarked to meet higher costs of supported housing elsewhere.  Ministers are intending to cap housing benefit for supported housing tenants in line with LHA levels from 2019/20. The government plans to devolve extra funding locally to help tenants cover the more expensive rents in supported housing. Read more on Inside Housing.

Supported Housing: Sector Warns Of Uncertain Future

Housing bodies and charities have warned of an uncertain future for supported housing, following the government’s announcement of a funding plan. David Orr, chief executive of the NHF, led the warnings – saying he is “not confident” in the new system which will see funds passed to councils. Mencap and St Mungo’s also reacted cautiously to the plans. The sector had been campaigning to change the government’s policy to restrict housing benefit in supported housing to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates available to private tenants. Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, announced the government will press ahead with applying the rates, however it will distribute a ‘top-up’ fund to local authorities.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Treasury “Quirk” May Mean Housing Associations Topping-Up Staff’s State Pension

Housing associations could find themselves paying out extra to cover pensions costs thanks to a “quirk of legislation” that allows the Treasury to pass on the cost of state pensions reforms. The issue is of primary concern to local authorities, which would see £1bn added to their pension bill, but it could also impact housing associations and other organisations that make use of public sector pension schemes.  The Government has traditionally provided a top-up to the state pension to inflation-proof it against rising prices. But as part of the reforms to create a single tier state pension, the DWP will stop providing the top-up for some of the pension of those who reach state pension age after 5 April 2016. Most private sector employees will definitely be at the top-ups end but there is continuing uncertainty over the position of public sector employees and others who participate in public sector pension schemes. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Tories Kill Sheltered Housing & Landlords Don’t Even Notice!

Sheltered housing is dead due to Conservative housing benefit policy and social landlords haven’t even noticed this cataclysmic change to their business! Housing benefit in the social rented sector will be capped at the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate is the Conservative policy and the current average 1 bed sheltered housing property has a rent of £136.98 and the 1 bed LHA rate in Liverpool is £90.90 per week. The pensioner would therefore need to top up their rent from their state pension by £46.08 per week which is £2400 per year! The same situation will happen in most of England (though not London) and in Scotland and Wales as this change is a housing benefit policy and therefore GB wide. Read more on the Speye blog.