2017-02 Consultation response on Funding for Supported Housing
We welcome this consultation, and the review of supported housing that preceded it, as an indication that government is taking a serious and considered approach to putting supported housing on a secure, stable and long-term footing. With the proposed move to a top-up approach, there is the risk that while services in high cost areas are effectively guaranteed all or most of their rental income, those in lower cost areas would need to rely on less certain agreements with local authorities. Local authorities with lower LHA caps conversely would have more financial leverage to influence the provision of supported housing. Government can protect against ‘post code lottery’ risk by not basing the proposed top-up funding directly on local housing allowance. To impose this cap as proposed would risk having the viability of supported housing not determined by need or cost, but by local general rental levels
More in our written submission.
