The lack of ringfenced funding for supported housing and the resulting removal of the mandatory national quality standards have created a bleak race to the bottom, writes Lee Buss-Blair, director of operations – care and support at Riverside, as part of the Reset Homelessness campaign.
At a time when more than 160,000 homeless children are living in temporary accommodation (TA) and rough sleeping continues to increase, it is easy to forget that there was a time in very recent history when homelessness services in England were widely regarded as a success.
Within the past two decades, supported housing in England was well-funded and well-regarded, and benefited from a national quality framework that delivered consistent standards across the country. The consequences of this investment in commissioned homelessness services was stunning. The number of homeless households living in TA in England more than halved in less than five years.
How did this happen? In 2003, the Blair administration introduced the Supporting People programme, as the number of homeless households edged towards 100,000. Government investment in long-term, ringfenced funding, underpinned by national quality standards – the Quality Assessment Framework – delivered transformational outcomes for homelessness services.
The provision of properly commissioned homelessness services and lower-needs supported housing grew to meet the level of need present. As a result, more than 50,000 households and 60,000 homeless children were taken out of temporary housing, much of which was completely unsuitable for their needs.
Unfortunately, it did not last. The effects of the economic downturn started to hit between 2007 and 2009, and the government removed the ringfence from Supporting People in April 2009.
The impact was not immediate. As Homeless Link explains in its report titled Breaking the cycle: Delivering a homelessness funding system that works for all, Supporting People remained as an identifiable budget line in the local government settlement and redirected funds had to contribute towards the aims of Supporting People.
However, funding was completely absorbed into local authority core grants in 2011. At the same time, the national Quality Assessment Framework was no longer mandatory. Deep cuts to government spending were then introduced as part of austerity, which saw funding for homelessness services drop.
The impact over the past 14 years has been stark. A report, commissioned by Riverside and authored by Imogen Blood and Nicholas Pleace at the University of York, highlighted how England’s homelessness sector became “traumatised” by funding cuts.
The lack of ringfenced funding for supported housing and the resulting removal of the mandatory national quality standards created a bleak race to the bottom.
The lack of ringfenced funding for supported housing and the resulting removal of the mandatory national quality standards created a bleak race to the bottom. Without the ringfence, councils – which were, and indeed still are, themselves severely cash-strapped – understandably looked for ways to reduce spending.
The consequences have been severe. Much-needed services have been decommissioned, while the retained commissioned contract values for supported housing have increasingly fallen behind the cost of service delivery.
Homeless Link’s analysis from December 2024 shows that the number of bed spaces available to single people experiencing homelessness in England is 45% lower than in 2008.
At the same time, the number of people sleeping rough in England has more than doubled since 2010.
And the number of homeless households living in TA has more than doubled to 126,040. The high cost of TA means councils spent £2.3bn on temporary housing between April 2023 and March 2024 – almost treble the £845m spent in 2015-16. This is pushing councils to the brink of bankruptcy and more than 150 councils held an emergency summit to discuss the rapidly increasing costs in 2023.
As regulated, commissioned homelessness services have exited the market, there has been a boom in unregulated for-profit exempt accommodation.
While some exempt accommodation is considered adequate, significant concerns have been raised about ‘unsafe and unregulated’ rogue supported housing providers. A report for the London Assembly outlines the situation: “Some exempt accommodation providers are charging £500 to £700 a week but councils have had no way of knowing if the care or housing provided is good quality or value for money.”
In essence, the lack of ringfenced funding and the removal of the mandatory quality standards means too many vulnerable people have gone from being housed in good-quality commissioned services to poor-quality, non-commissioned and unregulated services.
Supported housing is a lifeline for people affected by trauma and many others who need additional support. The question is, do we create good outcomes for vulnerable people if they are left in temporary accommodation or worse if they are living in ‘unsafe and unregulated’ exempt accommodation?
The question is, do we create good outcomes for vulnerable people if they are left in temporary accommodation or worse if they are living in ‘unsafe and unregulated’ exempt accommodation?
The long-awaited Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act will soon introduce much-needed mandatory licensing and quality standards again.
However, if local authorities had adequate funding to address homelessness needs in their area through commissioned services, there would be no place for non-commissioned exempt accommodation because the local need would be adequately met.
After a period of high inflation and cost of living pressures and no inflationary uplift, contracts already under pressure will soon become even more financially unsustainable due to the 6.7% National Living Wage increase and 15% rise in employer National Insurance contributions.
As a result, financially responsible providers like Riverside are reluctantly choosing to withdraw from some financially unsustainable homelessness services.
It is therefore crucial that the government reintroduces long-term ringfenced funding for homelessness services in the Comprehensive Spending Review which adequately meets the levels of need, as well as affording to pay support staff a wage that they can live on.
We have already proven we can reduce rough sleeping and halve the number of homeless children and families living in temporary accommodation once before. If the government gets the funding and the quality standards right, we can do it again.
Lee Buss-Blair, director of operations – care and support, Riverside