Protect Housing For Vulnerable People

CIH is urging Chancellor George Osborne to use next month’s (March) Budget to exclude supported housing from plans to cap housing benefit for social housing at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates (the amount of housing benefit people living in the private rented sector are able to claim). CIH’s budget submission details the potential impact on people who live in supported housing and the social landlords which provide it. One local authority estimated that new tenants in one of its extra care schemes would be left with a shortfall of up to £67 a week. A social landlord with a large care and support arm estimated that it will cost them upwards of £18m a year – making schemes unviable – while another said it would be left with a £9.5m shortfall. Read more on the CIH website.