Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of voluntary quality standards and accreditation schemes for supported exempt accommodation; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that providers meet minimum standards.

We are implementing the measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act to raise standards and drive out the minority of poor providers taking advantage of the Housing Benefit system whilst providing little or no support to residents.

On 15 October we took the next step in implementing the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act by publishing a consultation, which can be found here, on draft regulations, which will close on 10 December. The licensing regulations will be laid early next year following the analysis and consideration of consultation responses. We expect licensing to be fully implemented in 2027/28.

While local authorities should wait for the regulations to be laid before implementing licensing itself, there are things they can do now to tackle poor quality accommodation, and poor quality support. This includes:

• Inspection and enforcement of accommodation quality standards using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and existing property licensing regimes.
• More frequent property inspections, particularly with multidisciplinary teams (e.g. housing enforcement, adult social care and housing benefit teams working together) to identify areas of improvement or concern.
• Scrutiny of Housing Benefit claims to ensure that residents are in need of care, support or supervision in supported housing, and that they are getting the support that they need to live as independently as possible.

The Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP) supported 26 Local Authorities (LAs) to address poor-quality supported housing and to drive up standards in their area utilising the current powers available to them, set out above. Initially a £20 million 3-year programme, a further £8 million of funding was issued to participating LAs in May 2025, to continue the programme until 31 March 2026. An evaluation of the Programme will be published early next year.

Birmingham City Council has received a total of £6.5 million funding from the department to address poor quality supported housing and to drive up standards. Between October 2020 and September 2021 it received £1,740,000 from the Supported Housing Oversight Pilot (Pilot). Between 2022 and 2026 it received £4,760,000 in funding via the Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP).
An evaluation of the Pilot can be viewed here.

A specific assessment of voluntary quality standards and accreditation schemes for supported housing has not been made. The government is clear that all supported housing should provide good quality accommodation, be  well managed and residents should get the support they need to enable them to live as independently as possible and this is why we are implementing the measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act.

The Multi-Agency Strategic Enforcement Group was established by Birmingham City Council who are best placed to respond to questions about their work.

Local authorities already have planning powers to limit the proliferation of Houses in Multiple Occupation within their locality. Where there is sufficient evidence of the need to do so, a local planning authority may withdraw a permitted development right in a specific area using an Article 4 direction, after consultation with the local community. This would mean any change of use to both large and small Houses in Multiple Occupation would require an application for planning permission, which has to be determined in accordance with the development plan for the area, enabling local people to comment.

Moreover, the new National Planning Policy Framework, which can be found on gov.uk  here, provides a more flexible framework for the use of Article 4 directions, allowing local planning authorities to remove permitted development rights where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the wellbeing of an area, for instance where there is an overconcentration of small Houses in Multiple Occupation.

Supported exempt accommodation is a housing benefits concept and therefore does not fit neatly into the planning use class system. Where a material change of use is required to provide supported exempt accommodation, planning permission will be required.

We continue to keep planning use classes and permitted development rights under review.