The price of support

This letter is seeking the views of National Housing Federation members who are also providers of supported housing on the burgeoning costs and bureaucracy of the Supporting People care services funding regime. I would be very interested to know the level of costs incurred by member organisations during the preparation and implementation of the new system.

Leaving aside the central and local government costs of the system, which is almost all additional expenditure to that incurred by the existing housing benefit regime, the direct costs to NHF members must be astronomical.

Boston Mayflower has borne costs of £100,000 to date, and will be pressurised to employ additional staff just to manage the monitoring and review processes.

Members and staff of the federation spent significant amounts of time negotiating with the Housing Corporation to bring about an outcome-based regulatory regime.

We now find ourselves subject to a whole new raft of prescription from Supporting People, which includes, among other requirements, a demand to monitor nightly occupation of periodic tenancies.

I feel obliged to ask, on behalf of our tax-paying tenants, precisely what additional or improved services have resulted from this additional expenditure.