Post CSR campaigning

The results of the Comprehensive Spending Review were announced on 20th October 2010. It included deep cuts in many areas of public spending. Those most relevant to homelessness include local government, housing investment, public sector job losses and welfare cuts. These changes are very likely to increase the flow into homelessness.

At the same time maintaining homelessness services has been given some priority by Ministers and the Treasury within the Spending Review, including:

• Sustained level of Homelessness Grant  - around £400m over the Spending Review period 2011-2015
• Lower than average cuts in SP – 12% cut over four years (with 2.7% in 2011012)
• New capital funding for Places of Change investment in homelessness services - £37.5m additional investment starting April 2012.

However, these need to be seen in the context of 7.1% decrease in council funding annually, leading to a cumulative 28.4% cut by 2014/15 and an end to ring-fencing of most grants to local authorities.

Other measures announced include:

1. Increasing the age threshold for the Shared Room Rate in Housing Benefit from 25 to 35, with likely impacts on homelessness and some accommodation providers.
2. A potential increase in social housing rents to 80% of market rents for new tenancies, alongside substantial 74% cut in affordable housing budget.
3.  £2 billion funding for social care.
4. A £100 million transition fund for voluntary sector agencies most hit by the cuts.

Homeless Link response

 CSR briefings

• In response to the Spending Review announcement, we produced a briefing for members and a review of the impact of our Spending Review Submissions.   Some of the specific asks we made in our submissions to the Comprehensive Spending Review and the evidence we provided of the transformative work of the sector, the positive outcomes of Supporting People and Places of Change funding appear to have made an impact. You can view the CSR briefing documents here. 

 Cuts monitoring

• Following alarming reports from our members about local authorities' proposed cuts to homelessness services, we have been contacting members and local authorities across England to build a comprehensive picture of what cuts are likely, and what impacts these may have on services. This will help support local services to campaign. At the moment most of this information is anecdotal. We are expecting the final funding settlements for local authorities to be announced in the first week of December 2010 (dependent on being passed by Parliament) and after this we should have a clearer picture of local decisions and their impact on our sector. More specific information will be published on this shortly.