Government Scraps Plans To Drastically Reduce Funds For Supported Housing

The government has performed a dramatic U-turn over plans to drastically limit funds for supported housing, following an outcry from charities supporting vulnerable groups.

The plans, announced by the prime minister Theresa May last year, was to place councils in charge of ring-fenced funding for emergency accommodation such as women’s refuges and homeless shelters. But housing benefit will now be kept in place for domestic abuse victims, homeless people and other vulnerable groups in need of a safe place to stay – of which there are an estimated 716,000 in the UK – a move campaigners described as a “huge relief”.

The government’s proposed supported housing funding model would have taken refuges for those fleeing domestic violence or at risk of homelessness out of the welfare system, instead devolving the costs to local authorities. But, domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid had warned this could have caused more than a third of refuges across England to close, leaving thousands of women and children without a safe place to go. A survey by Rethink Mental Illness meanwhile revealed that 84% of workers in supported housing for people with mental illness believed their service would have been in danger of closure if these new proposals went through.

Announcing the decision to re-think the plan, housing minister Kit Malthouse said: “Protection of the most vulnerable has always been our primary concern, and following our consultation, the case for keeping supported housing in the welfare system became clear. The sector also recognised that our aim of improving the quality of homes must be addressed, and we look forward to now working with partners to make sure we have strong measures in place.”

But Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, Sarah Jones MP, said: “The government has finally listened to Labour, charities, housing providers, and members of the public. Thousands spoke out against the ill-conceived proposals for supported housing funding which would have left some of our most vulnerable people without a safe place to stay.”

“But it begs the question why Ministers put people through this pain and uncertainty in the first place. Three wasted years have strained our supported housing stock at a time when the need is higher than ever, a result of austerity and the disastrous roll out of Universal Credit. The Government must now urgently guarantee housing benefit funding and increase the provision of supported housing. Only this sort of decisive action could begin to make up for the delays and damage that has been inflicted on providers and people living in supported housing.”