MPs criticise lack of secure funding

The government was bracing itself for further criticism this week
over its funding of the Supporting People programme.

In a report due to be published this week a parliamentary select
committee looked set to attack the government for not giving
sheltered housing and hostel projects secure funding through
Supporting People.

Committee chair Andrew Bennett MP pointed out that providers needed
at least five-years’ guaranteed funding to invest in capital – more
than the three-years’ funding that had been pledged.

“The Housing Corporation has said ‘here’s some money’ to hostel
providers and they have said ‘we can’t do it because of the
uncertainty about Supporting People’,” Bennett said.

Regeneration minister Lord Rooker insisted there was “no way we are
going to be pulling the rug from under them [projects meeting an
important social need]”. But he did admit that Supporting People
had been implemented with insufficient “financial finesse”, with
some local authorities being overfunded and others
underfunded.

London homelessness charity Broadway has already warned it could be
forced to make redundancies as Supporting People cuts bite.
In a letter to staff seen by Community Care, chief executive Howard
Sinclair warned that it was “inevitable” that some of the cuts to
the Supporting People pot announced for the following two years
would be passed on to the charity.