The government's housing growth and market renewal areas could be left without enough supported housing unless the Supporting People funding mechanisms are changed, the sector has warned.
In future, the funding formula will look at the needs of the area's population. This means funding for supported housing will lag behind the population explosion expected in the growth areas.

Miles Partridge, London regional Supporting People adviser at the National Housing Federation, said: "It is difficult to see how you would get sustainable communities if you do not have funding for older people's housing.

"Under the needs-based formula you have to get population growth before you get the funding, which doesn't work where there's a big population change going on."

Housing associations have also warned that there is unmet need for supported housing in the market renewal areas. Ian Perry, chief executive of Harvest Housing Group, said there were many elderly people living in pathfinder areas whose supported housing needs were not yet known about. As the pathfinders surveyed their population, the extra need for funding would be revealed, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said: "We are still looking in detail at the allocation formula and any idea of funding for the growth areas will form part of that decision process."

  • Barking, set to form part of the Thames Gateway, has been unable to fund a homeless people's foyer because its Supporting People cash could not stretch far enough. The council gave £11m through social housing grant but could not get £750,000 Supporting People cash, without which the foyer cannot go ahead.

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    Housing Today