Written evidence submitted by West Midlands Housing Association Partnership [EXA 012]

This response is provided by West Midlands Housing Association Partnership (WMHAP). We are a partnership of 25 registered Housing Associations providing homes and services across the West Midlands, working with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to help deliver their vision for housing, health and wellbeing, productivity, and skills.

We welcome the focus of the Select Committee on exempt supported accommodation and the learning which will come out of the Inquiry.

Through our work across the region, we know there is excellent provision of exempt supported accommodation which meets the needs of vulnerable residents by providing high quality accommodation in a communal setting with both intensive housing management and personalised support. We firmly believe that exempt accommodation provision is an important element of any housing strategy.

Our concerns however centre around the growth of a part of this sector which fails to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable residents. Over recent years we have seen a combination of unmet need, low Local Housing Allowance levels particularly for single people, inadequate social housing supply and no explicit funding for housing related support since the ring fence was removed from the Supporting People programme in 2009. These factors have been further exacerbated by current regulations relying heavily on outdated housing benefit regulations, making it extremely difficult for councils to manage the supply and the quality. This has, in some cases, led to an unacceptable ‘market response’ from unscrupulous providers resulting in poor quality accommodation, with little or no support and in some cases risky mixes of vulnerable residents causing significant impacts in some areas and communities.

The exponential rise in this type of provision is causing considerable concern in the West Midlands, with evidence growing that the model is becoming increasingly common in many areas of the country. Alarmingly this is not always recognised at an early stage, and mistakenly considered as HMO accommodation.

Nationally, FOI information published by Crisis in October 2021 shows that 153,701 households in Great Britain were housed in exempt accommodation as of May 2021. This represents a 62% increase from 2016 to 2021[1]

A report recently published by Prospect Supported Housing, on their decision to close exempt accommodation provision, estimated “that at least £816m has been spent on exempt accommodation in the last financial year alone. This is based on the responses received and a conservative estimate for those who were unable to provide exact figures”. They went on to note: “Spend on exempt accommodation (and presumably demand) has continued to rise. Based on responses from 52 authorities, the spend on exempt accommodation has risen by over £110m between 2018-19 and 2020-21”[2]

It is important that need is identified, and appropriate, high quality supported accommodation is provided to meet this need. This underpins the health and social care system and sustains and promotes independent living within the community.

We believe that the combination of root cause issues and inadequate regulations can only be addressed effectively with government intervention. Guidance will not be enough to address this growing problem.

We support the proposals by partner agencies in the West Midlands and nationally, which would require government action to address the following:

• A review of the current funding model for locally delivered supported housing – incorporating funding of support for vulnerable tenants and resources for Local Authorities to enable any new duties and responsibilities concerning regulation, planning, and commissioning to be carried out effectively.
• Consideration of a government national accreditation requirement for providers supported with additional regulation to enforce this and a national database of providers’ performance against these standards.

• Oversight of the provision and development of supported housing to be within the remit of Local Housing Authorities, based on a duty to assess the local need for supported housing and development of a supported housing strategy, which meets local need and includes those who cannot remain in their local areas, for example refuge provision.
• For local authorities to have greater tools, authority, and ability to control provision and growth based on their needs assessment. These would mark a substantial step change in Councils' ability to stop or restrict growth based on market saturation or oversupply.

The key requirements are:

○        Alignment of existing planning and HMO licencing powers to capture supported housing provision – currently exempt from licencing, Article 4 etc. to assist in managing supply.

○        Strengthened definitions within current regulations relating to the level of provision of care, support, and supervision.

○        Consideration of the scale of provision and ratios of support workers to vulnerable residents they are supporting, and the source of funding for support to be transparent.

• Strengthen the role of the Regulator for Social Housing role and ability to effectively monitor compliance against consumer standards for Registered Providers (RPs) in this sector. Including and especially, where providers operate a leased based model for the provision and supply of accommodation and support.
• Strengthen the role of non-RP regulators including within the Charity sector to ensure proper oversight of quality is in place.
• Protocols put in place for statutory referring agencies into Exempt Accommodation to create greater consistency and accountability for out of area placements.
• Greater enforcement powers to tackle providers who do not effectively manage ASB, including additional Community Safety powers. 

This Inquiry represents an important opportunity for government to introduce changes to the way public funding is invested in the exempt accommodation sector so that the most vulnerable residents are helped to secure good quality, progressive accommodation, and support, enabling transition to greater independence and employment.

January 2022