Cllr James Jamieson is the Chairman of the Local Government Association and a former Leader of Central Bedfordshire Council.
Every year an estimated 50,000 people are helped to move on from supported housing and go on to live independently. That figure is equivalent to transforming the lives of the entire population of a city the size of Durham, Canterbury, or Lancaster every single year.
We all know that a stable and supportive home environment is a fundamental building block for a happy and productive life.
This stable home environment is what supported housing provides to 140,000 people living in working-age supported housing in England at any given time.
For people in supported housing, this help can be the difference between getting one’s life back on track, or drifting back into chaos and misery. The data shows that a high percentage of people achieve a successful outcome after a stay in short-term supported housing.
Statistics from Riverside, the largest provider of supported housing for people affected by homelessness in the UK, show that more than four-fifths of their customers (83 per cent) moved on from homelessness in 2021/22 after staying in hostels and shelters for a maximum of 24 months.
In some cases, this support can be the difference between life and death. However, in spite of its success and the thousands of people it helps and supports, the sector is struggling to cope with the financial stress of the highest inflation rates for more than 40 years.
Analysis by Homeless Link has shown the impact of these costs.
With energy prices more than doubling, building material and maintenance costs rising by a quarter, and the National Living Wage increasing by ten per cent, many supported housing services are running deficit budgets and relying on reserves to meet essential costs.
More than 90 per cent of Homeless Link members said rising costs are impacting their ability to maintain service and support standards. One in four providers of supported housing said the cost-of-living crisis put their service at risk of closing altogether.
Unfortunately, supported housing has suffered from low public visibility – meaning it has fallen off the political agenda – and its value hasn’t been understood at a national level for too long.
That is why a new report, commissioned by the National Housing Federation (NHF) and 13 NHF members, is so welcome.
It provides the first comprehensive evidence base of how important supported housing is in getting people back on their feet and preventing socially and economically ruinous outcomes.
The report found that without the supported housing sector, homelessness would increase by 41,000 a year, and our health services would need to provide an extra 14,000 psychiatric inpatient places costing £170,000 each per year.
Without supported housing the UK also would need a further 2,000 prison places, costing £32,700 per year, simply due to licences or court orders being revoked.
These are huge economic gains as well as social gains for a relatively modest outlay.
If we think of housing as a service provided in isolation, we might miss the sheer size of the contribution supported housing can make.
If we think of housing as part of a complex ecosystem which affects other areas where we spend huge amounts of taxpayers’ money – health, crime, education – then it becomes a no-brainer. Supported housing helps people who need and deserve our help, and it saves us all money in the long run.
For too long, perhaps, the sector has taken a quiet approach to going about its business. It has not shouted about its achievements; it has just been happy to transform the lives of people who sometimes live on the margins of society. This has perhaps made it too easy to ignore at a time when public funds are in short supply.
What should be happening now? We need a locally-led, fully-funded, long-term funding regime for supported housing. Adequate funding would unlock the development of new supported housing schemes needed to meet growing demand and reduce spending on residential care, and if administered long term, would support councils to fund long term strategies and services.
A full review of available provision – and demand – is also overdue.
Councils are hopeful that the new supported housing bill will give them the chance to create new strategies that are focused on current provision and demand, which will enable them to meet gaps in local housing need.
This will need to be underpinned by sufficient funding through government and a recognition of the workforce issues being faced by councils and providers alike.
The last review of supported accommodation was in 2016, since when we have seen the disruptive effects of both the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
Last month, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned research by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University to assess the current size, cost, and demand, for the supported housing sector.
The research will take a mixed-method approach, analysing secondary data as well as surveying and interviewing local authority staff, supported housing commissioners, and supported housing providers.
It is vital that this work has maximum “buy-in” from all sectors if it is to build on both the 2016 accommodation review and the new NHF report. However, government also needs to realise the capacity challenges currently being faced by councils can sometimes make this difficult.
Supported housing can sometimes been seen as an “expensive” option, because it involves providing extra help to those who need it.
But in fact, it is the most cost-effective option: if we don’t spend the money on supported housing, we just end up having to provide a different kind of support further down the line. That often that comes with human as well as economic cost.
For those of us who have known for many years what a vital service supported housing provides, it is hugely welcome to see it finally in the spotlight.
However, we must keep the momentum going and continue to press for more support.
These are difficult times for our national Government and in prioritising what to invest in, the Government should look at solutions which are strategically sound, deliver lasting results for our communities, and represent value for money.
On all three counts supported housing warrants more funding and support from central Government.