Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported housing
Public Accounts Committee
HC 1330
Published 10 November 2023
Recommendations
9
Accepted
Lack of regulation in exempt accommodation leads to exploitation and disgraceful resident experiences.
Recommendation
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee focused on exempt accommodation, a subset of supported housing, during its inquiry in 2022. It described the sector as a “complete mess”, and a “goldrush” for unscrupulous landlords.13 The Committee took evidence from …
Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and will publish a consultation in early 2024 on the detailed design of measures in the Supported Housing Act 2023, including local licensing schemes and national standards. DLUHC will also provide new burdens funding and guidance to support local authorities' implementation.
HM Treasury
View Details →
20
Accepted
Lack of data hinders assessment of significant Housing Benefit fraud in supported housing
Recommendation
The problem of fraud is going largely unaddressed in supported housing. The NAO investigation found that DLUHC and DWP do not know how much fraud is made possible by gaps in oversight and regulation of supported housing. DWP has calculated …
Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and will sample Housing Benefit cases in supported and temporary housing from Nov 2023 to Oct 2024 to inform the May 2025 fraud and error publication. This will help them identify specific fraud types, develop plans for LA referrals, and assess the effectiveness of existing initiatives.
HM Treasury
View Details →
Conclusions (19)
2
Conclusion
Accepted
Exempt accommodation—an expanding sub-sector of short-term supported housing that can be of poor quality—has little regulation or oversight so leaving vulnerable people unprotected from unscrupulous providers. We echo the strength of feeling and view of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee in their report on exempt accommodation (mostly short-term …
Government Response Summary
DLUHC commits to supporting local authorities with new burdens funding (following a post-consultation assessment) and will publish guidance alongside new National Supported Housing Standards and licensing regime regulations. DLUHC has also written separately to the Committee.
3
Conclusion
Accepted
DLUHC and DWP cannot assess and therefore resolve the problems with supported housing as they have no reliable data about the sector. The data on the sector held by DLUHC and DWP is incomplete and out of date despite the department and its predecessor departments being aware of the issues …
Government Response Summary
DLUHC commissioned research for early 2024 publication, while DWP invested in LA IT systems in 2022 and awarded £4.79 million for LAs to review Housing Benefit claims by March 2024, enabling robust data collection from April 2024. New duties under the Act will also contribute to capturing future data, with consultation in early 2024.
4
Conclusion
Accepted
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 gives local authorities more powers over providers of supported housing but there is a risk of unintended consequences, including discouraging good quality providers. The Act gives powers to local authorities to set up licensing schemes for supported housing providers to join and adhere …
Government Response Summary
DLUHC will publish a consultation in early 2024 seeking views on the licensing regime's design, including appropriate fee levels, and will incorporate this into impact assessments published alongside the regulations to ensure a proportionate approach.
5
Conclusion
Accepted
Local authorities have limited capacity to deal with fraud in Housing Benefit claims for supported housing. In other recent reports we have highlighted the Supported housing 7 limited capacity of local authorities to tackle fraud and stressed the need for central government to provide better support. We are disappointed to …
Government Response Summary
By July 2024, DWP will undertake several steps to identify Housing Benefit fraud in supported housing, including understanding volumes, sampling specific cases for the May 2025 MVFE publication, developing plans for LA fraud referrals, and reviewing existing LA cases. This will inform future support and funding for local authorities.
1
Conclusion
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) about supported housing.1
Government Response Summary
The government has commissioned research on supported housing supply and demand, due for publication in early 2024, and DLUHC will respond to the Committee within six months of its release to detail efforts to increase supply.
8
Conclusion
Accepted
The need for different types of supported housing varies locally due to different demographics in local authority areas. DLUHC told us there is not the right supply of supported housing for the right people in the right places and that as a result, supported housing does not offer the right …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and sets a July 2024 target. It confirms DLUHC has commissioned research on supported housing supply and demand, due for publication in early 2024, and commits to responding to the Committee within six months of publication to detail efforts to increase supply.
10
Conclusion
Accepted
Exempt accommodation can provide much-needed homes and support including for people recovering from drug or alcohol dependence; at risk of or transitioning to or from homelessness; or on release from the criminal justice system. However, the NAO found that some areas, such as Birmingham, have seen increasing numbers of landlords …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating DLUHC will publish a consultation in early 2024 on the detailed design of measures from the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act, including supporting local authorities with new burdens funding and guidance.
11
Conclusion
Accepted
DLUHC told us that the sector “is not working as well as it should” and that the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill, as it then was, would bring in important reforms.18 The Bill focused on exempt accommodation (mostly short-term supported housing that is exempt from locally set Housing Benefit caps) …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating DLUHC will publish a consultation in early 2024 on the detailed design of the measures set out in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, including new burdens funding and guidance for local authorities.
12
Conclusion
Accepted
The Act will introduce several new measures that will increase powers for local authorities to have more control over supported housing in their areas. During the DLUHC funded pilot schemes for the Supported Housing Improvement Programme, local authorities were able to test ideas to improve supported housing in their areas, …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating DLUHC will publish a consultation in early 2024 on the design of measures from the Supported Housing Act, including supporting local authorities with new burdens funding and guidance for implementing reforms.
13
Conclusion
Accepted
DLUHC and DWP have no reliable data about supported housing and as a result cannot assess and resolve the problems within the sector. The NAO investigation found that DLUHC and DWP do not routinely collect national data on the numbers of people living in supported housing or the numbers of …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, acknowledging limited data and committing to specific actions including DLUHC commissioning research and DWP making IT system improvements, providing £4.79 million in funding to local authorities to improve data quality by March 2024.
14
Conclusion
Accepted
While DWP collects data from local authorities, this does not include people living in supported housing who are not in receipt of Housing Benefit.26 Before April 2022, DWP could not differentiate whether Housing Benefit claims were for supported housing. Since April 2022, DWP has made attempts to improve the data …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, with a Summer 2024 target. It details existing investments for improving new Housing Benefit claims data, the £4.79 million funding for reviewing existing claims by March 2024, and future monitoring, further supported by new Act duties for strategic plans and a licensing regime to capture sector data.
15
Conclusion
Accepted
Both DLUHC and DWP have committed to improving data.28 DLUHC has commissioned research to provide an up-to-date understanding of the supported housing sector in England, with funding from DWP to extend it to Scotland and Wales. DLUHC intends that the snapshot of data focuses on the size and composition of …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, with a Summer 2024 target. It confirms the DLUHC-commissioned research for early 2024 publication, followed by a second research project, and reiterates DWP's ongoing data improvement initiatives, including £4.79 million funding for local authorities to review existing Housing Benefit claims.
16
Conclusion
Accepted
DLUHC and DWP are taking steps to better understand supported housing with the publication of the new snapshot of data. To ensure its understanding is relevant in the future, DLUHC is relying on the new duties that the Act imposes to get local authorities to provide it with annual data. …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, with a Summer 2024 target. It confirms DLUHC's commissioned research and DWP's data improvements, and highlights that the Act places new duties on local authorities for strategic plans and a licensing regime to provide future data, with consultation on details planned for early 2024.
17
Conclusion
Accepted
The Act intends to improve the quality of supported housing and give local authorities more control of supported housing in local areas. It does this through giving local authorities powers to create licensing schemes for providers of exempt accommodation, including provisions to restrict or remove Housing Benefit.34 The licensing scheme …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating DLUHC will publish a consultation in early 2024 on the detailed design of measures within the Supported Housing Act, including new burdens funding and guidance for local authorities implementing licensing schemes.
18
Conclusion
Accepted
However, there is a risk of unintended consequences from the licensing scheme, including discouraging good quality supported housing providers. The NAO reported that some concerns had been raised by stakeholders, including from local authorities, that small or specialist non-commissioned supported housing providers may leave the sector or that it may …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, acknowledging the risk of unintended consequences from the licensing scheme. DLUHC commits to taking a proportionate approach and will publish a consultation in early 2024, followed by impact assessments alongside the regulations, to balance costs and protect good quality providers.
19
Conclusion
Accepted
DLUHC has committed to assessing if local authorities will need new burdens funding to help them to set up the schemes. It told us that it expects local authorities to fund the licensing schemes’ running costs through the fees they will charge participating providers.37 However, DLUHC has noted the difficulty …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, acknowledging the challenge of balancing licensing scheme costs and fees. DLUHC will take a proportionate approach, publishing a consultation in early 2024 and subsequently impact assessments for the regulations, which will consider fee levels.
21
Conclusion
Accepted
Local authorities are responsible for managing Housing Benefit claims in their areas and while some have the resources to check individual claims for fraud, many do not. DWP told us that while some local authorities are taking action on fraud, it is concerned that there are local authorities that are …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, setting a July 2024 target. It commits to sampling passported Housing Benefit claims for a May 2025 publication, developing plans to support local authorities in making quality fraud referrals, and evaluating existing initiatives' effectiveness in supported housing.
22
Conclusion
Accepted
DWP does some limited checks for fraud at a local level. It noted that it samples just 60 housing benefit claims per local authority for fraud and that supported housing benefit claims will only be a small portion of this sample.44 Some local authorities in the Supported Housing Improvement Programme …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and sets a July 2024 target, committing to sample passported Housing Benefit cases for a May 2025 publication, develop plans for local authority fraud referrals, and review existing initiatives' effectiveness in tackling supported housing fraud.
23
Conclusion
Accepted
DWP told us that it is working closely with DLUHC to help all local authorities to act on fraud. In addition, it set out how the Bill will provide opportunities for local authorities to challenge fraudulent claims by giving more clarity on quality standards and a definition of “care, support …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation regarding local authorities acting on fraud. DWP will sample Housing Benefit cases from Nov 2023-Oct 2024 to identify fraud types, develop plans for LA referrals, and assess effectiveness of current initiatives in tackling supported housing fraud.