Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Seventy-Seventh Report - Supported housing
Public Accounts Committee
HC 1330
Published 10 November 2023
Conclusions (4)
6
Conclusion
Rejected
Some local authorities face increasing gaps in their budgets because of the way DWP Housing Benefit regulations work. Local authorities pay housing benefit directly to providers and ‘subsidy loss’ is the gap between how much rent a housing provider charges to a local authority and how much of it the …
Government Response Summary
The government explicitly disagrees with including subsidy loss in the Supported Housing Act consultation because it is outside the Act's scope, though they expect stakeholders to raise the issue and will monitor contributing factors.
24
Conclusion
Rejected
The NAO investigation found that some local authorities face increasing gaps in funding for supported housing because of the way the DWP’s Housing Benefit regulations work. “Subsidy loss” is the gap in funding between how much rent a housing provider charges to a local authority and how much of it …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with any implied recommendation to directly address subsidy loss. While DWP will consider feedback from LAs and monitor the issue, it has no plans to explicitly address subsidy loss in the upcoming Act or consultation.
25
Conclusion
Rejected
The scale of subsidy loss varies between local authorities and some local authorities experience a high subsidy loss. The amount of subsidy loss is increasing overall with local authorities in England experiencing a subsidy loss of £108 million (in cash terms) in 2021–22 compared with £53.8 million in 2017–18.49 The …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with any implied recommendation to directly address subsidy loss. While DWP will consider feedback from LAs and monitor the issue, it has no plans to explicitly address subsidy loss in the upcoming Act or consultation.
26
Conclusion
Rejected
Successful bids from local authorities for the Supported Housing Improvement Programme have included work to reduce subsidy loss in local areas. DWP told us that local authorities can reduce subsidy loss by scrutinising Housing Benefit claims more by overseeing providers and asking for breakdowns of bills that come through on …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with any implied recommendation to directly address subsidy loss. While DWP will consider feedback from LAs and monitor the issue, it has no plans to explicitly address subsidy loss in the upcoming Act or consultation.