Landlords have been urged to bid for supported housing funding despite the government’s benefit changes, as the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) indicated a more relaxed approach.
This follows fears that housing associations could scrap future bids to build supported housing under the 2016/21 affordable homes programme. Uncertainty has been caused by the government’s decision to cap housing benefit at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates in social housing from 2018, which providers say will make supported housing schemes unviable.
The government has said it will protect schemes affected by the cap, however so far it has only offered a one-year exemption for supported housing.
The HCA said this week “If you’ve got schemes that you definitely want to do once everything is sorted out… do feel free to bid them in, even though you need to wait until the LHA position is sorted to actually know whether they’re going to be viable.”
Under previous programmes, housing providers have had to demonstrate they have sufficient funding to be viable.
The 2016/21 Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme will fund 8,000 specialised, low-rent homes.