Policy paper

Supported Housing Improvement Programme prospectus

Updated 24 November 2022

Applies to England

Section 1: Summary overview

The Supported Housing Improvement Programme is an England-wide £20 million funding programme, available over the 3 financial years (2022 to 2025), which draws on the outcomes and good practice from earlier pilots. Whilst all local authorities in England are eligible to apply to bid for funding, we are keen to hear from those who are experiencing high volume or significant impacts arising from poor quality supported housing provision or unscrupulous landlords operating in their area.

This prospectus provides detailed guidance that we believe provides useful context that will assist local authorities, both in considering whether and how to bid, and also for those local authorities who go on to participate in the programme. The guidance however is not intended to curtail local areas from submitting bids which suit local circumstances and priorities.

At the bidding stage, we are only asking local authorities who wish to bid to submit no more than a light touch expression of interest, using the application form provided. This is to streamline the process to reduce the investment in time and resources involved for local authorities who wish to make a bid.

Key asks through this light touch bidding approach are that local authorities must clearly demonstrate, in their local context, the nature, scale and severity of the issues they face, that they are committed to a holistic multi-disciplinary approach to tackling this, that their proposed plans are locally appropriate and proportionate, and that they are willing to share data and learning with us as well as working with our independent evaluator.

Funding will be issued as a resource grant under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and will be allocated in 3 tranches, one at the beginning of each financial year (except funding for the 2022-23 financial year which we would envisage will be allocated in autumn 2022). The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) intends to ask successful local authorities selected to participate in the programme to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to sit alongside the grant allocation.

Section 2: Background to the Supported Housing Improvement Programme

1. The government is clear that supported housing must provide the support people need to live safely and as independently as possible. We want residents of supported housing to have safe, appropriate accommodation which meets their needs, delivers positive outcomes - whether this means living as independently as possible or moving onto more independent living over time - and provides value for money for the taxpayer.

2. We have engaged extensively with local government, providers and sector groups to understand issues in the sector. We are aware of a minority of supported landlords providing poor quality accommodation and support, which often leaves residents vulnerable and open to exploitation. This issue can often be concentrated in particular neighbourhoods.

3. In response to these concerns, the government ran year-long pilots to test local interventions to improve quality and value for money in supported housing. From October 2021 to September 2022, the government provided £5.4 million of funding to 5 local authorities (Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bristol and Hull) to test interventions to raise standards of accommodation and support and improve local authority oversight of the local supported housing market.

4. The pilots focused on several core activities, all undertaken by a cross service, multi-disciplinary team:

• Inspections of accommodation standards, and enforcement activity.
• Reviews of the support provided to residents.
• Enhanced scrutiny of Housing Benefit claims.
• Strategic planning, based on need and supply assessments.

5. Pilot local authorities supplemented the core activities with interventions tailored to their area. This included training providers on their responsibilities and obligations, managing anti-social behaviour, and introducing a gateway approach for new provision.

6. The pilots were independently evaluated by Kantar Public. The evaluation found a positive impact on quality and value for money as well as a local authority’s ability to manage their local supported housing. Local authorities were able to establish innovative, more effective ways of working, take action to improve standards and ensure costs are reasonable, and gain oversight of their local market. The evaluation was published on 7 April 2022 and a link to the published report can be found in section 7.

7. Alongside this Prospectus, we are also publishing a resource bringing together good practice (“Local authority interventions to improve quality in supported housing”, hereafter referred to as the “good practice resource”) and learnings from the pilots which may help local authorities to understand better the activities which delivered the best outcomes.

8. In October 2020, the government published a National Statement of Expectations for supported housing, which sets out our expectations for ‘what good looks like’ for accommodation standards. It brings together good practice and ways of working, alongside minimum and recommended accommodation standards. A link to this guidance can be found in section 7.

9. The Department for Work and Pensions has also recently published Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing claims, in May 2022. A link to this guidance can be found in section 7.

10. As with the supported housing pilots, our overriding objective is to raise standards and tackle instances of poor practice. We do not want to place undue pressure on providers who are delivering a quality service.

Section 3: Summary of funding details for local authorities

11. The Supported Housing Improvement Programme is an England-wide funding programme, available over the 3 financial years (2022 to 2025). The programme will build on the outcomes and good practice from the pilots to drive up quality and value for money in supported housing with up to £20 million revenue funding available.

12. Whilst all local authorities in England are eligible to apply to bid for funding, we are keen to hear from those who are experiencing high volume or significant impacts arising from poor quality provision or unscrupulous landlords operating in their area. We intend to continue to provide some level of funding to the 4 areas previously involved in the earlier (round-two) pilots (Birmingham, Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Hull) so as to build on the momentum of the gains and good work already in train in those areas. All funding proposals should cover the full 3 years of the programme. We would expect the majority of funding applications to request less than £1 million in total across the 3 years, albeit we recognise there may be some cases where a greater level of funding might be justified – though where proposals do exceed this, we would wish to see and discuss a well-evidenced justification for this higher level of funding. No bid should be higher than £2 million. In 2-tier areas, we would especially welcome joint applications from upper and lower-tier authorities. We will also accept joint applications from neighbouring local authorities, particularly where these authorities have smaller supported housing markets and/or are facing similar challenges in their areas.

13. Over the 3-year programme, participating authorities will be asked to use the funding to undertake a number of ‘core’ activities that proved useful in the earlier pilots, as set out from paragraph 27.

14. We would also be interested to see where proposals might sit alongside other housing quality enforcement measures (e.g. in the private rented sector) or levelling-up investment.

15. Evaluating the progress of the programme will be vital to ensure activities are effective and represent value for money. All successful applicant local authorities will be asked to agree to regular monitoring and reporting activity (see section 5 for more details) and participation in an independent evaluation. Local authorities will also be asked to collaborate and share learning with each other (both with participating and non-participating local authorities) to maximise the effectiveness of the programme.

16. To apply for funding, please fill in the Expression of Interest application form at Annex A, setting out, with evidence as far as possible, the prevalence and nature of poor-quality supported housing in your area, and the nature and severity of the issues arising. Proposals should also include a summary high level strategy and short delivery plan, which demonstrates that your local authority has the knowledge and commitment to address the problem, provides evidence of a commitment to bringing the relevant internal skillsets together for a joined-up, multidisciplinary approach, and provides a description of the scale of the proposed intervention and enforcement activities. Successful applicants will be asked subsequently to develop a more detailed delivery plan, within 6 weeks of being notified of their successful bid (local authorities may want to cross refer to what the pilots achieved).

17. Successful applicants will need also to demonstrate that the local authority has considered any public sector equality duties here, and will be asked to share with the department sight of an appropriately tailored, proportionate, local Public Sector Equality Duty Statement. The PSED should either identify in relation to the local authority’s plans that the following are the case (or include proposals to mitigate any issues so identified):

a. No particular group will be directly targeted by the LA’s plans, for example, anyone living in the poor-quality accommodation in the proposed scheme areas should benefit from the improvement in housing standards and support through the enforcement element of the pilot. 

b. That the LA’s proposed plans do not unlawfully discriminate against persons with protected characteristics. 

c. Improvement in the standards of housing under the LAs planned scheme will advance equality of opportunity for all groups living in supported housing (and it is possible they may significantly benefit vulnerable cohorts living in short-term transitional supported housing, where we understand the issue of poor-quality provision is often more prevalent).

18. By ‘short-term transitional accommodation’, we mean ‘accommodation to offer people short-term (generally 6 months to 2 years) of support with accommodation, often following them experiencing a life crisis like homelessness or domestic abuse, to build their skills and confidence to help them to move back into longer-term housing’.

19. All costs included in your proposal must clearly contribute to the delivery of the objectives of this programme (see section 4). Expressions of interest should clearly set out any pre-existing work or plans for interventions on this area and the financial resources already in place or earmarked to that end. During the process of assessing applications, we may wish to seek clarification or discuss with you any scope to review the affordability of your funding request to central government, either through synergies, savings, reducing the scale of its ambition, or through match-funding. To further help us manage overall affordability, if needed, in the event that DLUHC receives a high number of applications, all proposals should also set out what could be delivered if the funding award represented only 75% of the amount requested.

20. If your proposal is successful, funding will be allocated across the 3 financial years to the end of the financial year 2025/26. Funding for years 2 and 3 will be contingent on meeting agreed objectives and milestones, with DLUHC satisfied that sufficient progress has been made in year 1 (and subsequently in year 2) (though withholding funding for these years would be a last resort).

21. There should be no expectation of further continued funding after 2022-25. Local authorities selected to participate in the programme should over the course of the 3 years look to consider how they can mainstream and self-fund their improved approach to continue to tackle this problem, after the end of the programme. Any ongoing activity after the end of the programme will need to be met from the local authority’s own financial resources and local authorities should take that into account for example in connection with any recruitment and employment contracts entered into.

Summary high level strategy and outline delivery plan

22. Your summary strategy and delivery outline, within your application, will need to set out an indication of the required resource for the proposed core activities (set out in section 4). As part of this, you should set out which part(s) of the local supported housing sector resource will be focused on, based on local knowledge of where the interventions would be expected to deliver the greatest benefit. Our expectation is that this will focus on parts of the non-commissioned sector where local authorities are likely to have less oversight. Successful applicants would later need to ensure their subsequent detailed delivery plans will include:

• An estimate of the projected number of inspections and support reviews participants intend to carry out over the 3 years.
• The proportion of the local market this would cover, and
• Rationale for focusing on a given part(s) of the sector (e.g., quantitative evidence of poor-quality accommodation and/or support, intelligence from local partners, or concerns about high Housing Benefit costs in certain types of accommodation).

23. Local authorities are encouraged to set out how proposed interventions are tailored to address local circumstances. This flexibility is intended to give local authorities autonomy to design and implement approaches which will be effective in their areas, while building on the interventions tried and tested through the pilots.

Scale and severity of the issue

24. Wherever possible, you should aim in your application to provide evidence of the prevalence and nature of poor-quality supported housing and the issues arising from it in your area. Supporting evidence could include: the number of supported housing schemes or units, the level of local need, the number of properties inspected where poor quality accommodation or support has been identified, the number of complaints (e.g., about anti-social behaviour) or the number of emergency services callouts. We understand that not all local authorities collect or hold this data, or it may be difficult to source. Where precise figures are not available, please provide your best estimate and/or any qualitative or anecdotal evidence to support your case.

25. For further information, please contact SupportedHousingImprovementProgramme@levellingup.gov.uk.

Section 4: Objectives and required activities of the programme

26. The objectives of this programme are to support local authorities to directly target local quality and value for money issues in their area. It is intended that through this funding, local authorities will be able to:

• Drive up standards of accommodation and support.
• Improve value for money of supported housing.
• Implement improved management of supported housing.
• Improve knowledge of local supply and demand.
• Intervene in Housing Benefit applications relating to new provision, where it is unsuitable, does not meet local need or does not meet local authorities’ expected standards.
• Support neighbourhoods and communities affected by the symptoms of poor-quality provision.

27. Those local authorities selected to participate in the programme will be expected to subsequently develop plans to use the funding for the following core activities:

 a. Establish a multi-disciplinary team to tackle local quality and value for money issues in a holistic and joined up way. This team will bring together cross-Council expertise to undertake all activities below in particular multi-disciplinary inspections.

 b. Review support arrangements, including safeguarding, through person-centred assessments of the support being provided to individuals within each property inspected.

 c. Carry out property inspections and enforcement of accommodation standards to ensure housing is accessible, appropriate, safe and hazard-free.

 d. Scrutinise new and existing Housing Benefit claims to ensure claims are legitimate and reasonable.

 e. Develop a standardised local approach to managing new provision including (Housing-Benefit related) Gateway Reviews for new providers or new schemes.

 f. Develop a strategic plan for cohorts accommodated in short-term (‘transitional’) supported housing, based on a comprehensive assessment of local need and supply, with a local plan to meet future need (to be completed in year one).

28. Authorities might also consider other tailored activities that you may determine contribute to the objectives of this programme given local circumstances, priorities or innovative thinking. Other activities, that proved useful during the pilots, included reaching out to providers, engaging with them and delivering provider training, and where needed, developing activities to tackle anti-social behaviour.

29. Each participating local authority will also be asked to provide data and work with an external evaluator where appropriate.

30. You may find it helpful to refer to the pilots’ good practice resource (see section 7) when designing your subsequent detailed delivery plans. The resource sets out suggested approaches in establishing a multi-disciplinary team, conducting resident support reviews and taking a risk-based approach.

Establishing a multi-disciplinary team

31. A multi-disciplinary team, bringing together expertise from across the Council, allows for a holistic approach to improving quality and value for money. The supported housing pilot local authorities found this to be key to the success of their work.

32. The team would maintain oversight of all project activities being delivered and share knowledge and intelligence on supported housing. The team could comprise members from:

• Housing Options/Housing Need
• Homelessness/Rough Sleeping
• Adult Social Care including social workers and commissioners
• Housing Enforcement including Environmental Health
• Revenues and Benefits

33. Teams would carry out property inspections to assess accommodation standards, assess whether the support provided is appropriate, take enforcement action if HHSRS standards (see paragraph 42) are not met and assess whether what is being provided aligns with the associated Housing Benefit claim. Establishing close links to colleagues in the relevant council planning department(s) is important and where relevant teams should collaborate with wider local agencies such as the emergency services and local charities.

34. Successful applicants’ subsequent detailed delivery plans should include a structure for a multi-disciplinary team and a team leader (normally the project lead) to maintain oversight of its work.

35. Information Governance (IG), which includes data protection, confidentiality, records management and also sensitive non-personal data, will likely be a key element to multi-disciplinary holistic working. This will likely involve use/sharing of SCAVA data (safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults) about your residents; use/sharing of more basic personal data e.g., service providers; and also sharing of non-personal data like housing supply or projected future demand. Successful applicants’ subsequent detailed delivery plans will therefore also need to briefly cover how the local authority will ensure that General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and related appropriate personal data use or sharing requirements will be clearly set out upfront in planning and delivery.

Improving quality and oversight of support

36. Good-quality support allows individuals to live as independently as possible, either long-term or in transitioning to general needs accommodation. It can improve their self-confidence, wellbeing and health. Assessing whether support is sufficient for the individual, and tailored to their needs and goals, and taking action to improve the standard of support where needed, is vital to this programme. Support reviews would be part of property inspections and an integrated part of the multi-disciplinary team. This activity should include an assessment of an individual’s needs and whether they are being met in the current provision, as well as considering any safeguarding issues.

37. In pilot authorities a member of the multi-disciplinary team scrutinised the support being provided to residents of supported housing. They assessed a range of factors to determine the suitability of the residents for the property and the appropriateness and adequacy of the support being provided. If needed, they provided recommendations for improvement to the provider, and followed up to monitor progress.

38. Successful applicants’ subsequent detailed delivery plans should set out at a high level how the authority might undertake reviews of support provided in supported housing (e.g., using existing resource/roles or recruitment of a dedicated advisor(s)). Your plans would need to include details of how the review and assessment of support might be resourced.

39. We are keen for local authorities, working with our evaluators to qualitatively measure the outcomes of accommodation inspections and support reviews by encouraging local authorities and the independent evaluator to collect:

• Case studies demonstrating how local authority interventions and actions improved quality.
• Tenant testimonials on how their service has improved and how that has impacted them.

Improving quality of accommodation

40. Safe and appropriate accommodation is key to an individual’s experience of supported housing.

41. Multi-disciplinary team inspections of properties have delivered good results. These may involve enforcement officers (e.g., Environmental Health) or external agencies such as the Fire Service. Where concerns or hazards are identified, officers should use relevant powers to issue formal or informal notices to the landlord where appropriate and follow up to ensure these have been actioned.

42. Local authorities already have tools through which to address poor quality including under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)^{[footnote 1]}. Where a local authority identifies a category 1 hazard (a hazard which is a serious and immediate risk to a person’s health and safety), they must take appropriate enforcement action. For category 2 hazards (a risk to a person’s health and safety that is less serious and/or less urgent than a category 1 hazard), authorities have powers to take enforcement action. Enforcement options include serving an improvement, prohibition or hazard awareness notice, ensuring emergency remedial action is taken or, in the most extreme cases, issuing a demolition order.

43. The National Statement of Expectations (NSE) in Supported Housing sets out the government’s vision for the planning, commissioning and delivery of supported housing, and outlines our recommended standards for accommodation in supported housing. The guidance highlights innovative approaches and examples of good practice. DLUHC encourage local authorities to take these standards into account when considering the quality of accommodation and when commissioning services. Local authorities intending to bid into the Supported Housing Improvement Programme may find it helpful to review the material in the NSE on accommodation standards (see Part 2 and Annex A to the NSE). A link to this guidance can be found in section 7.

Scrutiny of Housing Benefit claims

44. Housing Benefit scrutiny aims to ensure that specified accommodation claims are legitimate and that the amount of rent and service charge being charged is reasonable. This involves verifying that the claim meets the definition for specified accommodation in Housing Benefit regulations. Conducting additional, more in-depth reviews will enable the local authority to challenge unreasonable costs and improve value for money.

45. For example, under Housing Benefit regulations^{[footnote 2]}, providers can be asked to provide information to support claims. Local authorities can also challenge unreasonably high rents and service charges as well as charges which are ineligible for Housing Benefit.

46. Local authorities should undertake reviews of both new and in-payment Housing Benefit claims, informed by wider multi-disciplinary team intelligence. This should include cross-checking evidence supplied in writing by providers, through a physical inspection of the premises and interviews with residents. For example, conclusions from support reviews may inform whether support meets the ‘more than minimal’ threshold.

47. Successful applicants’ subsequent detailed plans will need to set out how Housing Benefit/Universal Credit scrutiny will be resourced, and the staffing costs required.

48. See also paragraph 55 which sets out our suggestions for a ’gateway approach’ before Housing Benefit claims are accepted in connection with new providers or new schemes.

49. Where feasible, we would welcome it if successful applicants’ subsequent detailed delivery plans could demonstrate ambition to achieve rising Housing Benefit efficiencies over the course of the 3 years. Plans might also demonstrate a commitment to applying the learning from year 1 into further improving approaches here in years 2 and 3 and so on. As part of assessing the effectiveness of investing effort into the assessment of housing benefit, we would ask selected local authorities to provide data and to work with our independent evaluators on how and to what extent this has resulted in local financial or other benefits to the local authority itself. We would particularly welcome it if local authorities would share improvements in their learning and approach here with other authorities (both with participating and non-participating local authorities) and or to work with DLUHC to this end.

Need and supply assessment

50. A local need and supply assessment should provide information on best estimated:

• Local need, across different client groups.
• Current demand – individuals requiring short-term support services:
  • Number of people in supported housing and, where possible, the support they receive.
  • Number of people on waiting lists.
• Local supply, across different supported housing types.
• Breakdown of providers by structure (registered charity, Community Interest Company, limited company) and whether these are private registered providers of social housing.
• Number of commissioned units.
• Number of non-commissioned units.
• Breakdown of the costs associated with supported housing by type of accommodation, services provided and type of provider.

The assessment should also consider how supported housing fits with wider local support pathways.

51. There are many ways to assess need and supply in an area, and the pilot local authorities took varied approaches (which are further set out in the published pilot evaluation report). Each local authority has different existing data, resource and structures which will guide their approach. Collaborative working with other teams and organisations who deliver or refer into supported housing will be key to collect the necessary data. This may include:

• Local prison and probation services.
• Local health providers and stakeholders including Clinical Commissioning Groups/Integrated Care Systems.
• Council teams such as Adult Social Care, housing and public health, Revenue and Benefits, Children’s Services and leaving care.
• Housing providers.
• Charities and voluntary sector partners.
• Provider surveys.

Some approaches to collect the necessary data could include:

• Setting up or utilising an existing partnership board to bring together all stakeholders with the relevant data or insight.
• Drawing on existing joint strategic needs assessments or other plans.
• Hiring additional in-house resource.
• Working with external organisations who refer clients.
• Working with an external organisation or consultant.

52. The Domestic Abuse Bill requires upper tier local authorities to prepare and publish strategies for the provision of support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation in their area. To avoid duplication, Supported Housing Improvement Programme related need and supply assessments will not require any information on Domestic Abuse services.

Strategic planning

53. The pilot local authorities reported that need and supply assessments and strategic planning exercises improved their understanding of the demand for, and supply of supported housing. In turn they were able to reflect this in wider policies and strategies.

54. We anticipate that the findings from the need and supply assessments will inform the development of local strategic plans. Strategic plans:

• Project future need and stock.
• Map need against supply and identify any areas of unmet need in the local area (e.g., specific cohorts or levels of support need).
• Plan to meet need sustainably, and with good quality provision, reducing reliance on poor-quality or unreasonably high-cost provision.
• Consider how supported housing fits into the local authority’s wider housing strategy, and the types of accommodation that are most suitable for the local population.
• Establish a council-wide position on the supply and quality of supported housing.
• Generally, cover between 3 and 5 years into the future.

Gateway reviews

55. A further activity that authorities found beneficial during the pilot was to implement a ‘gateway approach’: a standardised process to manage new providers or new schemes. We believe this now needs to be a core element of the Supported Housing Improvement Programme. Amongst other things, this should involve checking whether future claims made from a resident of a new scheme are likely to meet the criteria of exempt accommodation, as specified in Housing Benefit regulations, before a Housing Benefit claim is made (see the pilots’ good practice resource for more detail).

Additional, voluntary, non-core activities

56. We believe that local authorities are best placed to understand the issues and ways that these would be best addressed locally. This fund seeks to encourage and resource those interventions, and so we will also consider funding areas to trial different and locally appropriate approaches to address poor quality.

57. A couple of activities that proved useful during the pilots were:

• Running training sessions for landlords to communicate expected standards and to support them in delivering appropriate accommodation and support.
• Activities to address anti-social behaviour, where it is an evidenced issue. Where this is an issue that local authorities feel is important to address, we would also ask successful local authorities to work with our evaluators to help develop case studies to help demonstrate the positive impacts made here.

58. Some other examples of how this funding could be used are listed below:

• Introduce measures to capture feedback from supported housing residents.
• Implement arrangements to better track and monitor individuals being placed into non-commissioned accommodation and the source of their referral. It could also include the development and use of a common referral and assessment form, created with input from a range of stakeholders and incorporating psychologically informed modes of enquiry.
• Create and maintain a record of supported housing providers and schemes (both commissioned and non-commissioned) to improve oversight of local provision and ensure that costs associated with them are transparent, reasonable and represent value for money.
• Establish protocols for collaboration with relevant neighbouring authorities to improve outcomes and efficiency in localities where applicants frequently seek help in a different district to the one where they live.
• Track resident outcomes to evidence the impacts of improved quality and value for money.

The list above is not exhaustive, and we would welcome ideas, tailored to your area’s local context and challenges.

Section 5: Other key activities

Evaluation and data collection

59. Evaluation and data collection will be key to measure the effectiveness of the programme. Some of the key benefits of the programme that we can track are:

• Improved value for money by driving up quality of support and accommodation in supported housing by tracking numbers of inspection/ reviews and numbers of actions resolved/ reduced.
• Generated savings by local authorities reporting the reductions made to the Housing Benefit bill where poor quality or inflated rents are identified.

60. Successful local authorities will be asked to:

• Gather information on activities undertaken and their outcomes. This might include data on inspections and follow up visits, hazards removed, improvement actions taken following support reviews, Housing Benefit claims assessed, and gateway reviews of new providers or schemes.
• Provide information on costings.
• Work with DLUHC to monitor the programme and its impact.

61. To help track these benefits right from the start, a data form will be provided to local authorities at the launch of the Supported Housing Improvement Programme to complete baseline data and at intervals after that. This will enable the DLUHC Supported Housing team to benchmark data at the start of the programme. We will ask for one-off reporting 3 months after the baseline exercise, and thereafter we will ask for reporting on a 6 monthly basis, over the course of the 3-year programme.

62. An independent evaluation will be undertaken as part of the programme and participating local authorities will be asked to work with the evaluator. We will also ask those local authorities selected to join the programme, to participate in a small number of local authority discussion groups to share experience on progress and any emerging learning.

63. Successful applicants will need subsequently to set out a plan for how data collection and contributions to monitoring and evaluation information will be factored into the overall cost of the bid. DLUHC will encourage reporting on spend and delivery outcomes. The plan should include how the monitoring will be resourced and agreement that financial data provided will have S151 Officer assurance.

64. Where appropriate/feasible DLUHC will look to coordinate any subsequent liaison, monitoring and reporting, to any extent sensible, for any local areas that find themselves in receipt of other DLUHC funding programmes, alongside this one.

Governance

65. The local authority is the grant recipient, responsible to their local community for delivering on their proposal. For joint expressions of interest, 1 local authority should be agreed upon to act as the lead authority.

66. Participating local authorities will be asked to nominate an individual who will be accountable for the programme. They will be asked to meet with DLUHC and DWP officials to discuss the programme and ongoing progress. We anticipate this will be quarterly in year 1 and 6 monthly in years 2 and 3.

67. Officials from DLUHC and DWP will be available to participating local authorities throughout the programme, providing advice and guidance as needed.

68. All financial data provided by local authorities must be signed off by the S151 officer.

Section 6: How to apply

Process

69. Local authorities must submit a completed Expression of Interest (EoI) funding proposal, found at Annex A, by Friday 2 September 2022.

70. Guidance including links to useful reading and documents can be found below. DLUHC and DWP officials will participate in a virtual seminar in early July 2022. Local authorities wishing to attend should contact: SupportedHousingImprovementProgramme@levellingup.gov.uk

71. A DLUHC and DWP assessment panel will convene to review the proposals. The supported housing team in DLUHC will provide a final decision, along with feedback and any conditions for funding.

Stage	Timing (date by)
Open funding call to local authorities	June 2022
Local authorities to submit Annex A (EOI application form) to DLUHC	2 September 2022
DLUHC/DWP Assessment Panel review proposals	September 2022
Decisions on funding allocations announced and programme delivery commences	Autumn 2022
Annual grant payments for 2022-23 issued	Autumn 2022

72. All proposals must include:

• Names, contact details and signature of an accountable individual within the authority and the CEO.
• A completed proposal form (Annex A EOI) with the associated declaration.
• Agreement to participate in each of the core activities and the evaluation. Where a local authority does not believe a core activity is appropriate to their local context (e.g., they have already completed an activity, or do not face the challenges it seeks to address), they should clearly explain this.
• The total amount of funding sought, including a high-level breakdown of costs and planned timing.

73. DLUHC reserve the right not to allocate the full £20 million budgeted.

74. NB any financial risks of overspend over and above the awarded grant level, will lie squarely with local authorities, as will any delivery, legal or reputation risks that might materialise in any individual enforcement projects.

Costs and allocation of funding

75. DLUHC have in total a maximum of £20 million to allocate through this process. Local authorities should keep this budget in mind when submitting proposals that are deliverable and proportionate. Funding will be allocated to local authorities subject to the evidence in their proposals of the scale and severity of the issues, and the indicated resources required for the proposed scale of intervention.

76. We reserve the right to:

• Reject proposals that do not adequately address the objectives of the programme.
• Scale back funding according to demonstration of need.
• Scale back funding for proposals that do not offer value for money.
• Scale back funding in order to reduce scheme ambition and deliverables, on the basis of overall affordability to the programme.
• Reject proposals on the basis of overall programme affordability.

77. Proposals should be based on provision of funding for over 3 financial years (2022-2025), with clear splits between years. There should be no expectation on the part of successful local authorities that further funding will be provided following on from the end of this 2022-2025 programme.

78. The following will be taken into account when proposals are considered, and funding allocations made:

• Proposals must show that the intervention is locally appropriate and proportionate.
• Bids that do not satisfactorily demonstrate the importance of the scale and severity of the problems faced will fail.
• Proposals should evidence how they address clearly identified local need. This includes a multi-disciplinary inspection team including the ability to review and assess care and support, including safeguarding.
• Proposals must identify local challenges, show use of evidence wherever possible, identify gaps in evidence, and how the intervention(s) specifically target the identified challenges.
• Supporting evidence or information on why the proposed cohort and area at the centre of the proposed intervention would benefit from additional oversight could include:
  • An estimated assessment of the scale of this accommodation, including number of units where possible.
  • Any evidence (quantitative or qualitative) of poor quality in your area, including poor accommodation standards or inadequate support.
  • Current housing benefit spend on supported housing per month.
  • The known impacts of poor quality on individuals in your area.
  • Any other impacts of poor quality-accommodation and support in your area.
• Local authorities will be expected to identify the type and indicative ballpark number of properties to be inspected. This would need to be deliverable within the timeframe and within the scale of the proposal for funding.
• DLUHC would like to see each proposal taking into consideration the scale and severity of the issue in the area and justify why the scale of the intervention is appropriate. Proposals which appear insufficient or excessive may be adjusted as needed.

79. Proposals must include a summary strategy and delivery outline.

80. Funding will be issued as a resource grant under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and will be allocated in 3 tranches, one at the beginning of each financial year (except funding for the 2022-23 financial year which we would envisage will be allocated in Autumn 2022). Funding for years 2 and 3 will be conditional on sufficient progress being made in undertaking planned activities and working towards meeting the programme’s objectives (though funding would only be withheld as a last resort). DLUHC intends to ask successful local authorities to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to sit alongside the grant allocation.

Value for money

81. The government is required to ensure that funding delivers value for money – we are interested in proposals that will deliver the programmes objectives, within a proportionate level of funding to undertake the commensurate scale of local activity and intervention.

82. The government retains the right to reject a proposal on the basis of insufficient information or value for money.

83. We would welcome local funding and resource contribution to this programme to ensure maximum impact for the funding provided, although this is not a funding requirement.

How to apply

84. If you intend to submit a funding proposal for the Supported Housing Improvement Programme, we ask that you pre-notify the team by Thursday 28 July 2022 at SupportedHousingImprovementProgramme@levellingup.gov.uk.

85. Applicants are asked to submit proposals no later than close Friday 2 September 2022 to: SupportedHousingImprovementProgramme@levellingup.gov.uk.

86. Proposals should be submitted using the attached Expression of Interest application form (Annex A). A link to this document can be found on the covering web page on GOV.UK.

87. Any questions should be directed to SupportedHousingImprovementProgramme@levellingup.gov.uk.

Section 7: Useful documents

1. Local authority interventions to improve quality in supported housing (pilots good practice resource)

2. 2021/22 Supported housing pilots evaluation

3. National statement of expectations

4. Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing claims

5. Local authorities, from within and beyond the pilots, have carried out needs assessments and strategic plans for specific client groups or for all supported housing. Approaches to conducting a needs assessment will vary according to a local area’s priorities, resources and demand. These may be useful examples to consider.

• Blackpool Council’s market position statement – supported housing
• Greenwich Borough Council’s housing strategy for people with a disability
• Haringey Council’s review of supported housing
• Leicestershire County Council’s investment prospectus

1. Housing Health and Safety Rating System guidance. ↩

2. Housing Benefit Regulations 2006. The same provisions exist in Universal Credit regulations. ↩