Drop in those funded by Supporting People

The number of people benefiting from the Supporting People programme has fallen by over 13 per cent since 2003, according to government figures.

The programme funded housing support for 1.069m households in England in September 2006, down from an estimated 1.232m in 2003.

Joe Halewood, director of supported housing consultancy HSM, said unpopular services such as those provided for single homeless people were most likely to be decommissioned by local authorities, which administer the programme.

He said councils preferred to spend the money on groups for whom they had a statutory responsibility, such as older people or those with learning disabilities