UK Inquiry Tracker

Supported housing

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 24 May 2023 Closed: 14 Feb 2024 Parliament page

Supported housing is accommodation that is provided alongside support, supervision or care to help people with specific needs to live as independently as possible in the community. This includes, for example, older people, people with a learning disability, people with a physical disability, people at risk of or who have … Read more Supported housing is accommodation that is provided alongside support, supervision or care to help people with specific needs to live as independently as possible in the community. This includes, for example, older people, people with a learning disability, people with a physical disability, people at risk of or who have experienced homelessness, or people recovering from drug or alcohol dependence. Supported housing can be short term or long-term, depending on a person’s needs. The National Audit Office has found in a recent investigation that gaps in data and regulation are – in some areas – allowing increasing numbers of landlords to profit by providing costly, sub-standard housing with little or no support, supervision or care. Commenting on the NAO’s findings PAC Chair Dame Meg Hillier MP said: “Vulnerable people deserve to live in housing that meets their needs. But gaps in regulation mean a concerning number live in sub-standard accommodation, at great expense to the taxpayer. Government must now capitalise on the work of its Supported Housing Programme Board and provide local authorities with the support they need, starting with meaningful data on the scale of the problem.” The Public Accounts Committee has an ongoing interest in housing related issues, including supported housing. Most recently the Committee’s Report into Affordable Homes (published in December 2022) found that the Department Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will struggle to meet its target for supported homes, and that the Department urgently needs to understand and quantify the savings that building more supported homes can make to local and central government spend on adult social care. The Committee also concluded that Department needs to work harder with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to overcome the barriers to delivery, particularly in London. In this inquiry, based on the NAO’s investigation, the Committee will look at issues including: responsibilities for supported housing; central and local oversight on supported housing; central and local government spending on supported housing; quality of the data available on supported housing; the regulation of supported housing; and the government’s current and proposed actions to improve supported housing. The Committee will question senior officials at the departments for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and Work & Pensions (W&P) on these issues. If you have evidence to inform their questioning please submit it here by 23:59 on Thursday 8 June 2023. Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. Show less

2 Recommendations

24 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

2 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 6 events

14 Feb
2024

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Seventy-seventh report from Session 2022-23

10 Jan
2024

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey CB CVO, Permanent Secretary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, re Seventy-Seventh Repo…

10 Nov
2023

Report published

Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported housing

11 Jul
2023

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey CB CV, Permanent Secretary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, re question raised at th…

21 Jun
2023

Oral evidence

Supported housing

21 Jun
2023

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Supported housing

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

21 Jun 2023

View on parliament.uk

Supported housing

Emran Mian · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Peter Schofield CB · Department for Work and Pensions Sarah Healey · Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Vikki Knight · Department of Work and Pensions

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported housing	HC 1330	10 Nov 2023	26	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 results

6 Conclusion Rejected

Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported…

Implement solutions to reduce housing benefit subsidy loss experienced by local authorities.

Some local authorities face increasing gaps in their budgets because of the way DWP Housing Benefit regulations work. Local authorities pay housing benefit directly to providers and ‘subsidy loss’ is the gap between how much rent a housing provider charges … Read more

Government Response

The government explicitly disagrees with including subsidy loss in the Supported Housing Act consultation because it is outside the Act's scope, though they expect stakeholders to raise the issue and will monitor contributing factors.

HM Treasury

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24 Conclusion Rejected

Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported…

Local authorities face increasing funding gaps for supported housing due to DWP regulations

The NAO investigation found that some local authorities face increasing gaps in funding for supported housing because of the way the DWP’s Housing Benefit regulations work. “Subsidy loss” is the gap in funding between how much rent a housing provider … Read more

Government Response

The government disagrees with any implied recommendation to directly address subsidy loss. While DWP will consider feedback from LAs and monitor the issue, it has no plans to explicitly address subsidy loss in the upcoming Act or consultation.

HM Treasury

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25 Conclusion Rejected

Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported…

Scale of supported housing subsidy loss is increasing significantly for local authorities

The scale of subsidy loss varies between local authorities and some local authorities experience a high subsidy loss. The amount of subsidy loss is increasing overall with local authorities in England experiencing a subsidy loss of £108 million (in cash … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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26 Conclusion Rejected

Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported…

New Act and current measures will not sufficiently address supported housing subsidy loss

Successful bids from local authorities for the Supported Housing Improvement Programme have included work to reduce subsidy loss in local areas. DWP told us that local authorities can reduce subsidy loss by scrutinising Housing Benefit claims more by overseeing providers … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 26 of 2 classified

Accepted 21

Deferred 1

Rejected 4

Total 2 recs + 24 conclusions

Correspondence 2 letters

10 Jan 2024 Correspondence from Sarah Healey CB CVO, Permanent Secretary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, re Seventy-Seventh Report of Session 2022-23 Supported Housing - recommendation 2, re 18 December 2023

Parliament page

11 Jul 2023 Correspondence from Sarah Healey CB CV, Permanent Secretary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, re question raised at the recent Committee Hearing on Supported Housing, dated 3 July 2023

Parliament page