Strategic advice & funding for housing, care & support providers

Contact us now to discuss your requirements

Support Solutions UK

27b Harmire Enterprise Park, Barnard Castle, DL12 8BN

Tel: 01325 487080 – Mob: 07968 142394

Contact us now to discuss your requirements

    Support Solutions UK

    27b Harmire Enterprise Park, Barnard Castle, DL12 8BN

    Tel: 01325 487080 – Mob: 07968 142394

    Support Solutions UK is immensely successful in securing enhanced Housing Benefit revenue for nonprofit providers of housing support and social care.

    Housing Revenue

    We are the UK’s best known and most successful organisation involved in assisting our clients to enhance their levels of Housing Benefit entitlement through the Exempt Accommodation rules and the provision of Intensive Housing Management services to people with additional needs. The work that we have done has enabled very many organisations to maintain, develop and enhance the services they provide to people with additional needs. In the face of a very challenging funding environment this has become an alternative means of funding supported housing.

    In November 2016 the UK Government announced that it had quantified the amount of enhanced Housing Benefit being paid in the UK; it amounts to £2.12bn pa. This funds Intensive Housing Management. Support Solutions UK has been instrumental in creating that pot of money to help with funding supported housing.

    In August 2018 the UK Government confirmed that funding for supported housing (including sheltered and extracare housing) will continue to be met through the welfare benefits system. This is a vindication of the approach we’ve taken since 2005 of reinventing Intensive Housing Management and ensuring that eligible costs are met by enhanced Housing Benefit. Please see our Briefing on the UK Government’s recently announced position on this.

    We work in such a way as to ensure that the interests of local authority funders are prioritised at the same time as enhancing the revenue our provider clients need to provide services to people with additional needs. This applies to supported and sheltered housing and general needs accommodation.

    We have authored and published numerous Briefings on Exempt Accommodation, Intensive Housing Management & funding supported housing and we frequently run well-attended and highly regarded learning and development events and conferences on this and related issues.

    Negotiating enhanced Housing Benefit for Intensive Housing Management remains a key part of what we do. It is very much in the interests of people with additional needs, the Providers that work with them and the local authorities within which they work to ensure that reasonable, well-founded enhanced Housing Benefit claims are made where appropriate & eligible. To enquire please contact us directly.

    One of the key features of our service is that we only charge if we achieve an increase in Housing Benefit revenue.

    Latest Briefing

    Customer endorsement

    Social Rent –7% restriction on rent increases for social housing tenancies in 2023

     

    Here at Support Solutions UK, we like to keep our followers and clients up to date with latest industry news.  Our December briefing takes a look at Social Rent and the Regulator's recent decision to apply a 7% restriction on rent increases for social housing tenancies in 2023. Importantly supported housing is exempt from the 7% rent increase and can still apply CPI + 1%, which is 11.1% in total.

     

    What is Social Rent and how does it work?

    Around four million families live in the social rented sector. This is almost one-fifth of households in England. Social housing is provided by either housing associations (not-for-profit organisations that own, let, and manage rented housing) or the local council.

    As a social tenant, you rent your home from the housing association or council, who act as the landlord. Social housing aims to be more affordable than private renting and provide a more secure, long-term tenancy.

    Social homes are the only type of housing where rents are linked to local incomes, making these the most affordable homes in most areas across the country.

    Rents for social homes are significantly lower than private rents. Rent increases are also limited by the government, which means homes should stay affordable long-term so people aren’t priced out of their communities by rising rents.

    Social housing should be there for anyone who needs it. At present, the law states who is entitled to social housing and should get preference on the waiting list. But councils have lots of flexibility on who qualifies locally and social landlords can refuse to let to people if they so choose.

    People in social housing usually have secure tenancies, giving them greater protection from eviction and enhanced rights compared to those renting privately. They provide the foundation people need to get on in life, meaning families can put down roots, plan for the future and make their house a home.

     

    How is Social Rent set? 

    In 2019, the government set a rent policy for social housing that would permit rents to increase by up to CPI plus 1 percentage point (‘CPI+1%’) per annum, and made clear its intention to leave this policy in place until 2025. We are however living through exceptional times and when the current rent policy was set in 2019, inflation was forecast to be around 2% in 2022 and 2023.

    In July 2022, CPI was 10.1%. If CPI remained at or above this level in September, this would permit social housing rent increases from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 of 11.1% or more. This is much higher than expected rate of inflation and is already placing considerable pressure on many households, including those living in social housing.

    Registered Providers of social housing (‘Registered Providers’) were obviously concerned about these pressures on their residents and came together on how the sector should respond.

    In the face of these exceptional challenges, the government thought that there was a strong case for making a temporary amendment to the CPI+1% policy for 2023/24 in order to provide a backstop of protection for social housing tenants from significant nominal-terms rent increases.

    The government decided to consult on a new Direction from the Secretary of State to the Regulator of Social Housing (‘the Regulator’) on social housing rents. This Direction would operate alongside the Direction on the Rent Standard 2019 issued on 26 February 2019 (‘the 2019 Direction’).

    The intention of this new Direction would require the Regulator to amend its Rent Standard so that the current CPI+1% limit on annual rent increases would be subject to a ceiling from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Registered Provider is allowed to implement. Registered Providers would be permitted to increase rents by 5% or CPI+1%, whichever is the lower. However, within this consultation, we are seeking views on 3%, 5% and 7% as ceiling options, and we are also

    7% Social Rent Cap 2023/24

    The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) had floated that social rent increases could be capped as low as 3%, however, setting the rent cap at 7% will come as a huge relief to registered providers and prevents a potentially apocalyptic scenario for some.

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