Last month, Homeless Link’s Policy Team attended a meeting with the Supported Housing Advisory Panel organised by the APPG for Ending Homelessness.
We were keen to understand how the Panel are feeding into the Government’s work to implement the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act (SHROA), hear any updates they were able to provide, and ensure they are aware of key issues facing homelessness services.
The Supported Housing Advisory Panel
The Panel has been established as a requirement of SHROA. Its purpose is to provide the Minister with responsibility for supported housing and relevant officials with independent, expert advice and insight on matters relating to all forms of supported housing. These topics include:
- implementation of the Act and associated reforms
- current and emerging issues in any form of supported accommodation
- impacts of government policy on residents, providers and local authorities
- risks, challenges, and unintended consequences affecting the quality, safety, viability and supply of supported housing.
The Panel is chaired by Sir David Pearson. Sir David attended the APPG meeting, along with Panel members Charlotte Talbott (Emmaus) and Pete Smith (The Housing Network).
The Panel are keen for their work to be conducted as transparently as possible and so the APPG has made the minutes of our meeting with them public.
Topics being considered by the Panel
The Panel outlined that their initial priorities are:
- The access to and supply of supported accommodation, with an initial priority of local supported housing strategies
- Licensing and quality, with an initial priority of the licensing regulations including how they interact with other regulations and regulatory regimes
- Resident voice and ensuring the implementation of SHROA is informed by lived experience
- Work on the particularly acute issues facing Birmingham
- The Treasury Value for Money review of homelessness (which includes supported housing)
- A review of data and information
- Engagement with stakeholders, interested parties and those with expertise.
During the meeting, we discussed the importance of supported housing in being able to achieve the Government’s targets around rough sleeping, and how it was crucial that those offered a route off the streets could access a suitable pathway that meets their needs. Concerns were raised that delays to the implementation of SHROA had caused a number of issues, including meaning that regulations would not be in place to help ensure that the injection of new funding was being put to best use.
Another key point of discussion was the potential for significant variation in the quality of local authority needs assessments and local supported housing strategies. The Panel confirmed that they are looking into this issue.
The Panel also confirmed that they are taking another look at the non-Registered Provider subsidy loss issue affecting many providers and local authorities, after it was not addressed in the SHROA consultation.
Attendees raised the many challenges caused by the lack of revenue funding for the support element of supported housing, and how this is not a sustainable system. We highlighted that the Panel should consider how current supply of high-quality supported housing can be protected, as well as looking at its future viability and expansion, and the current and ongoing issue of Housing Benefit being denied to legitimate providers, with excessive levels of scrutiny putting services at risk. The Panel agreed to add this to their agenda.
The latest on SHROA
Changes to the Government seem to have further delayed the implementation of SHROA. The latest we have heard is that MHCLG are nearly ready to consult on a draft of the regulations needed to bring SHROA into force, but this has been held up while the new Homelessness Minister is briefed and has the opportunity to input.
Local authorities should be working to produce their Local Supported Housing Strategies by the deadline of end of March 2027. We don’t yet have a date for the implementation of SHROA, which we still understand will be some point in 2027.
In the meantime, we are continuing to highlight the outstanding issues facing the homelessness supported housing sector with officials, Parliamentarians and other stakeholders. Read our previous blog for a reminder of the changes made by the Government’s consultation response and the issues that remain unaddressed.
If you have an example to share about the challenges in your area, please get in touch with Alex Worrell using the details below.
