Supported housing cash cuts ‘could slash development’ …

Funding cuts could halt development of supported housing schemes, Diane Henderson, head of care and support at the National Housing Federation, has warned.

The government is expected to announce in the next few weeks that it will slash the £1.8bn Supporting People fund, which pays for the operation of supported housing.

The situation will be aggravated by an arrangement in which the Housing Corporation funds development through its approved development programme while councils pay for the running of schemes through Supporting People.

They use different bidding timetables but each often require projects to have the backing of the other before committing funds.

Schemes that were given Supporting People funds too late to enter the most recent round of approved development programme bidding may not be able to get the development funds in the next few months, Henderson said.

“It feels as if the pressure is on increasing housing numbers rather than meeting the range of housing needs,” she added.

She also feared that supported housing to be built in 2005/6 under the corporation’s pilot of two-year development funding partnerships will miss out on Supporting People cash if the pot is cut back as expected.

The NHF had hoped the unused corporation development funds from these schemes would be set aside for other supported housing projects to bid for.

But a corporation spokesman confirmed: “There won’t be another bidding round for people who didn’t get Supporting People in time for the ADP bid. They should contact the corporation’s field officers because they can advise on whether an organisation can bid and how best to do it.”

He said any development funding that could not be used because of a lack of Supporting People grant would go back into the general funding pot rather than being set aside for other supported housing.

But he added: “We want to explore all the possibilities for using the grant for its original purpose before we start recycling it.”