The Housing LIN's Jeremy Porteus wish No3 for 2023 - Open the call for bids to the Care and Support Specialised Housing (CASSH) Fund

In addition to the Housing Transformation Fund, the Department of Health and Social Care White Paper made available a £213m capital allocation over 3 years in December 2021.

Over a year on no details have yet been released to guide councils or social housing developers on how to bid for this small but important capital programme.

My concern is that with revenue and mounting cost pressures (i.e cost of living crisis with higher inflation, rising rent and service charge levels, increased mortgage rates, greater labour and material costs), the delay in implementing the CASSH Fund any further may damage market confidence and create uncertainty in the development of new affordable specialist and supported housing as operators take a hard look at its' long term viability. 

My third wish, therefore, is that government urgently publish a CASSH prospectus so that bids can be received and allocations made to create a steady pipeline of new specialist and supported housing schemes from 2023 onwards, aided by the Housing Transformation Fund and levering in other sources of capital funding and/or land.