Supported housing funding encouraged

The Housing Corporation has relaxed its rules for funding supported
housing in a bid to halt a slump in new development.

Under the new rules housing providers will no longer have to
provide long-term guarantees about revenue funding in order to
become eligible for capital finance.

The corporation has halved its capital spending on supported
housing since the introduction of Supporting People, principally as
a result of a falling number of bids.

The corporation’s policy manager for supported housing James
Berrington said the fall in bids could be explained by uncertainty
over the future of Supporting People.

He said: “Having identified this significant drop we decided we
want to remove as many barriers as we can to ensure investment in
this provision can go ahead.”

Supported housing provider Carr Gomm gave the move a cautious
welcome. A spokesperson said: “This hopefully opens the door to new
developments of supported housing schemes which are desperately
needed and may have been on hold since the introduction of
Supporting People.”