Supported Housing: Finance

(asked on 6th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's consultation paper, Funding supported housing, published on 31 October 2017, whether the current projections of future need take account of population growth and demographic changes.


Answered by
Marcus Jones Portrait
Marcus Jones
Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
This question was answered on 13th November 2017

Government is committed to boosting the provision of much-needed supported housing. Since 2011, we have delivered 27,000 units of specialist and general housing for disabled, vulnerable and older people. We announced £400 million of funding through the Autumn 2015 Spending Review to deliver new specialist affordable homes. To date, the Department of Health has committed around £200 million to build over 6,000 supported homes through the Care and Support Specialised Housing (CASSH) Fund, again for older people, adults with physical disabilities, learning difficulties or mental health needs.

Our new funding model, announced on 31 October, retains funding for the two types of long-term supported housing in the welfare system – that is housing primarily for older people and housing for those who need on-going support, like vulnerable people with long-term mental ill health. This will give providers the certainty they need in order to invest in future supply.

In order to protect short-term supported housing provision, we are ring-fencing grant funding and intend to keep it ring-fenced into the long-term. Funding here will be at the same level it would have been through the welfare system in the first year of introduction of the new model in 2020-21. Budgets are not yet set for years beyond Spending Review settlements but future funding allocations for short-term accommodation will take account of the costs of provision and demand for services. Our assessment of this will take account of local authority strategic plans for supported housing - these plans will include local current and future needs and provision assessments. It will also take account of any modelling and projections of required future provision that may prove helpful including the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health commissioned research by the Personal Social Services Research Unit of the London School of Economics (2017), Projected demand for supported housing in Great Britain 2015 to 2030, as referenced in our policy statement of 31 October.

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