MPs warns of supported housing funding plans

Two Commons Select Committees have voiced concerns over the government’s funding plans for supported housing and domestic violence refuges and sheltered rent.

Writing to Housing Minister Heather Wheeler, the Communities and Local Government Committee and the Work and Pensions Committee have urged the government to re-evaluate its funding proposal for short-term supported housing provided for up to two years.

The letter says that ‘many providers are concerned that a system that relies on a local authority-administered, ring-fenced top-up fund is insufficiently reliable in the long-term and will lead to lower investment in the sector and, potentially, the closure of existing services’. It also argues that government plans to move from a ‘individual-based’ system of funding seems ‘very much at odds’ with wider welfare reform plans.

The letter also seeks further consideration on the introduction of a new model of funding for domestic violence refuges and for further details on how the new Sheltered Rent will work in practice to be provided.