A pair of Commons select committees have written to the housing minister to express concerns over the government’s funding plans for supported housing and domestic violence refuges.
The chairs of the Communities and Local Government Committee and Work and Pensions Committee have called on the Government to reconsider its funding for short-term supported housing provided for up to two years.
The letter to Heather Wheeler states: ‘While a locally-administered grant-based system would work well for emergency accommodation, anything longer than this should be funded through the same ‘Sheltered Rent’ model that the Government has proposed for other types of supported housing.’
The letter also calls for a national funding mechanism for domestic violence refuges and provide further details on how the new Sheltered Rent will work in practice.
The Government announced a new ‘flexible funding approach’ to fund supported housing last year.