The Welsh Assembly is poised to slash £13m of funding for supported housing next year in a move that could force schemes to close, writes Chloe Stothart.

The potential 9.7% decrease to a Supporting People budget worth about £130m in Wales would be the biggest percentage cut in the UK: in October the same budget in England was cut by 7.5% and in Scotland by 6.4%.

One housing association said it could lose almost a third of its Supporting People funding if the cuts go ahead. The association’s chief executive, who did not want to be named, said the reduction would cause scheme closures and redundancies.

Craig Mitchell, policy officer at the Welsh Local Government Association, said: “Cuts have emanated from the Treasury and been passed down to Wales. The assembly isn’t in a position to do anything.”

Reductions would not be capped for local authorities, as they are in England, so councils could have budgets cut by substantially more than 9.7%.

And local authorities may end up making more savings on funds they administer themselves, rather than funds given directly to some providers by the assembly, so that they can make the savings in time for the April deadline next year.

The Welsh Local Government Association estimates councils could therefore lose 12.3% of their budget on average.

Wrexham council, for example, might have an 18% fall in the Supporting People budget it administers next year when inflation is taken into account.

Joy Kent, director of the umbrella body for supported housing, Cymorth Cymru, called on the Welsh assembly to delay the cuts for a year to give councils and support providers time to prepare.

“The assembly has a £120m contingency fund and we think that should be used so there would be no cuts for 2005/6 because of the impossible timescale.”

The timescale is problematic not least because savings must be made by April 2005, but many Supporting People services are on contracts with six-month notice periods.

A spokesman for the Welsh assembly said it was “inappropriate to comment at this stage because the detail of the budget had not been finalised”. The final funding announcement is unlikely to be made before December, but will be brought in on 1 April next year.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Edwina Hart, the Welsh assembly’s social justice and regeneration minister, has promised to clamp down on the use of bed and breakfast for homeless people. This type of housing may soon only accommodate vulnerable groups, such as 16-and-17-year-olds and families with children, for two weeks.