PAC Report – Tackling Homelessness
This report sets out in stark detail the scale of the homelessness crisis with councils facing unsustainable financial pressures as a result.
The report is calling for a more effective response at a national policy level and identifies seven specific areas with identified recommendations for action by government.
Read a copy of the report here
Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations
1. Local authorities need more resources to focus on preventing homelessness.
In 2023/24 local authorities spent around £3.1 billion on homelessness of which £2.1 billion was used to provide temporary accommodation. Homelessness Prevention Grant funding amounted to about £440 million. In practice, the high numbers of people already in the homelessness system mean that local authorities use a significant portion of it to fund the provision of temporary accommodation, particularly in areas of poor affordability, rather than spending it on prevention work.
Recommendation: MHCLG needs to set out plans to incentivise and work with local authorities to improve homelessness prevention.
2. It is unacceptable that B&B accommodation is being used routinely to house people rather than as a last resort.
As at June 2024 almost 6,000 homeless families with children were being housed in B&Bs, and almost 4,000 of these families had been there for longer than the statutory maximum period of six weeks.
Recommendation: MHCLG should strengthen its use of HAST advisers in supporting local authorities to reduce their use of B&B accommodation and provide support to local authorities with high rates of temporary accommodation to plan how to reduce their reliance on it.
3. Too many people are being placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local area.
The homelessness legislation and code of guidance state that local authorities should, as far as possible, avoid placing households out of area, however, over the period 2018–19 to 2023–24, the number of households placed out of area increased by 42%. There is a lack of data around how far away from their local areas people are being placed and the wider consequences resulting from this.
Recommendation: MHCLG should improve its data on out of area placements as a matter of urgency and use the data to encourage better coordination between local authorities, to minimise the number of households placed out of area incentivise councils to use local providers.
4. The government is not considering the impact on homelessness when setting Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.
Capping and freezing LHA rates have reduced the income households can derive from benefits in real terms and 45% of households now face a shortfall between the LHA they receive and the rent they pay. Also, local authority temporary accommodation funding is essentially based on the 2011 LHA rate and has not kept up with rising temporary accommodation costs.
Recommendation: DWP should write to the Committee setting out, in detail, its justification for the levels of LHA it has set, both for individuals and for local authorities with regard to the temporary accommodation subsidy.
5. Tackling homelessness has long been hampered by the absence of a joined up, cross-government approach.
Examples
- There are multiple funding streams that can be used to tackle homelessness, which can be challenging for local authorities to administer.
- There are cases of the Home Office outbidding local authorities when seeking to accommodate asylum seekers in their area.
Recommendation: MHCLG should provide the Committee with further details of how its proposed cross-government homelessness strategy will generate practical improvements,
6. The homelessness problem is being exacerbated by a severe shortage in housing supply, and especially affordable housing.
A significant ramping up of the affordable housing supply is required to achieve a substantial impact on homelessness levels, particularly in areas where homelessness pressures are acute.
Recommendation: MHCLG should provide the Committee with an update on how its proposed new housing strategy will achieve practical improvements in the delivery of new homes.
7. Despite legislation designed to tackle well-established problems and gaps in regulation, MHCLG has made no progress in improving the oversight of the supported housing sector.
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act came into force in August 2023. This brought forward national standards for support and looked to give local authorities power to tackle poor quality supported housing in their area, yet by the end of 2024 the Act had not been implemented. Ongoing gaps in regulation mean landlords can provide costly, sub-standard housing with little support, supervision or care.
Recommendation: MHCLG should implement the provisions of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act as quickly as possible.
Planning Reform Consultation
Reform of the planning system is a central priority for the new government as it offers the potential to address the current housing crisis whilst also delivering wider economic growth.
A consultation covering changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has been issued setting out the government’s plans including:
- A new methodology for calculating local authority housing targets designed to support delivery of the Government’s manifesto commitment of 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament.
- A broader definition of brownfield land and an assumption that applications to develop brownfield land will be approved.
- Recognition that to achieve housebuilding targets, councils will need to consider development on parts of the Green Belt that are of low environmental quality, referred to as the ‘grey belt’.
- Clarifications around the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ including new safeguards against poor quality development.
- Raising building densities in urban areas.
- Measures to improve the delivery of affordable and social housing with an increased priority and focus on social rent.
The consultation runs from 30th August 2024 to 24th September 2024
Knowing our Homes Survey
The Knowing our Homes survey is part of a programme of work developed by the NHF in response to the Better Social Housing Review which aims to establish a shared, standardised approach for gathering and using information about the condition of social homes and about the residents who live in them. This should also help social landlords to meet new requirements emerging through the Consumer Standards which set higher expectations for how landlords gather and use information about their homes and their residents.
Although the Better Social Housing Review was initially focused on the housing association sector, the local authority sector has committed to support the work emerging from the review to make sure there is a shared approach across the whole social housing sector. The Local Government Association (LGA), Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH), National Federation of ALMOs (NFA), and Councils with ALMOs Group (CWAG) are all working together to achieve this and make sure the whole council housing sector is represented.
A survey was sent out to stock retaining local authorities, and local authorities with ALMOs in October 2023. This is the first stage of the work which identifies how local authorities are currently gathering and using data. 49 local authorities responded to the survey (around 30 per cent of local authorities with housing stock), managing around 599,000 social and affordable local authority homes across England (around 38 per cent of the total stock).
Snapshot of Survey Findings
- Three quarters of respondents to our survey have made significant changes to the way they monitor and work to improve the condition of the homes they manage within the last year. This includes, for example:
- Reviewing damp and mould policies and procedures, implementing training, creating new teams.
- Changing stock condition programmes, for example moving to a 100% survey, reducing the length of the rolling survey or undertaking a full assessment of stock condition.
- Reviewing and developing asset management strategies.
- Investing in new asset management or property information management systems. Developing processes to cross-reference data sources (e.g. property archetype, repair and cases of damp and mould) to better direct resources and identify issues.
- Reviewing processes for identifying stock condition between surveys, for example adding requirements to the gas servicing contract to identify property condition.
- Increasing staffing resources for quality assurance, stock condition and data management.
- Accessing funding for thermal improvement/ decarbonisation work to support quality of homes.
- Introducing tenancy audits, or changes in frequency or type of audit.
- The majority of respondent have – or are moving towards – a rolling stock condition survey where they survey 100 per cent of their homes. This will support them to the meet the requirements within the Regulator’s Consumer Standards to have ‘an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants.’ The information gathered as part of these surveys differs across respondents, but around 40 per cent gather information on energy efficiency of properties (e.g. RdSAP).
- The majority of respondents report having a process for proactively checking the condition of homes between stock condition surveys. This includes, for example, through tenancy checks or audits, and asking staff who visit the home to report issues. One of the key areas of work for many is making sure IT systems can effectively record all the information about a home and the people who live in it, and that data quality is good. Around a third of respondents would recommend the IT or data systems they would use, suggesting that there is work to be done in this area.
- Having a good knowledge of the people who live in homes is a key requirement in the new Consumer Standards; to make sure that services are tailored and equitably delivered. Nearly all respondents in our survey collect, store and retain data about tenants. This includes, for example, information on household make-up, relevant health issues or disabilities, and communication needs or preferences. Nine out of 10 respondents actively update the information they hold on tenants, for example after a repair or during a tenancy audit. Members are actively working on the processes that they use to make sure they can demonstrate they are equitably delivering services.
- The collection of data on tenants is an area that members are working on, and where good practice sharing would be beneficial; particularly thinking about GDPR principles, how (and what) data is stored and kept up-to-date, and how it is used. We will continue to work with the National Housing Federation and their members to share good practice in this area.
NFA / ARCH Annual Income Management Survey
The annual NFA and ARCH survey into income management has been published – On the edge: cost-of-living findings from the council housing sector highlights the difficulties facing many tenants due to cost of living pressures. In the past year rent arrear have risen by around 4% in the 28 council areas represented in the survey (17 ALMOs and 11 Councils). The average amount owed per household also rose from £427 to £527, up by 23%.
In looking to understand the drivers of current trends, the report identifies the impact of severe inflationary pressures which impact disproportionately on the poorest households as well as a welfare system that isn’t for purpose. The system of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) is also under increasing strain with reducing resources and increasing numbers requiring assistance.
Based on these findings, the report makes a number of asks of DWP and government including:
- Increase the basic universal credit element to cover the essentials of housing, food and heat.
- Stop paying universal credit in arrears
- Improve benefits for those in short-term, fluctuating employment
- Set a minimum level of benefit to stop deductions pushing families into destitution and to the brink of homelessness
The Better Social Housing Review
The Better Social Housing Review follows a six-month examination of the key issues and challenges facing social housing by a panel of independent experts on behalf of the National Housing Federation and Chartered Institute of Housing. This review addresses itself specifically to housing associations although there is a read across to the wider social housing sector.
The review identifies two central issues as top priorities for people living in social housing:
- the suitability and quality of housing stock
- the housing association’s culture and responsiveness to tenants’ concerns and complaints
There are seven key recommendations:
- The sector should refocus on its core purpose – to provide decent, safe homes for those who can’t afford the market.
- A national audit of social housing stock to develop a consistent picture of the state of social housing across the country. The report recommends that all organisations should use the new HACT UK Housing Data Standards.
- Organisations should bring together tenants, frontline staff and contractors to review maintenance and repairs and develop new approaches and definitions for what an excellent maintenance and repairs process looks like.
- There should be a renewed focus on resources and training to support the traditional housing officer role.
- Tenants should be recognised as key partners with initiatives to expand their role within organisations to ensure tenants have a voice and influence at every level of decision making.
- Organisations should develop a proactive local community presence through community hubs which foster greater multi-agency working.
- Organisations should work with their tenants and frontline to undertake an annual review of the progress in implementing the recommendations of the review.
The review has been warmly welcomed by housing organisations and others including Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, who endorsed the call for an audit of stock condition and action on disrepair along with other improvements to address wider resident concerns around service delivery and engagement.