Proposals to provide greater regulatory oversight of supported exempt accommodation

A new Private Members’ Bill, tabled by Bob Blackman MP was published on Monday this week, proposing to give local authorities new powers to drive out poor practice in supported exempt housing. It also creates new strategic duties for national and local government to improve wider oversight of supported housing provision.

The Bill is set out in 5 core sections, as follows:

• Advice, Support and Standards, including establishing a Supported Housing Advisory Panel, requiring councils to develop local supported housing strategies, and a National Supported Housing Standards Licensing scheme
   
• Licencing, including setting out licensing regulations and national onsultation arrangements, and local housing authority functions in meeting the National Supported Housing Standards
   
• Planning and homelessness, including planning and homelessness information; for example, if threatened with homelessness
   
• Information, including sharing of information relating to supported exempt accommodation and use of information obtained for certain statutory purposes Interpretation and final provisions
   
• Interpretation and final arrangements, including the meaning of “supported exempt accommodation”, other interpretation in the Bill and proposed commencement, extent and short title.

And as we reported last month, in a separate, but related, LUHC Committee inquiry on exempt accommodation, the Committee’s  report  (published on 27 October) found that the current system of exempt accommodation, a type of supported housing that is used to house a range of people with support needs, is a ‘complete mess’ that is failing too many residents and local communities at the expense of the taxpayer.