Executive Forces Housing Association Cuts

Housing associations are having to cut essential services to vulnerable people because of hard-hitting funding cuts imposed by the executive. Research conducted by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) shows that almost a quarter of housing associations who provide services to the homeless, the disabled and the elderly have been forced to cut some or all of their support services due to a decrease in the government’s Supporting People grant.

The types of services being cut include 24-hour concierge services in very sheltered housing, support for people living on their own for the first time and home care for people with disabilities.

The survey of SFHA members also reveals that a further 50 per cent of providers have had their Supporting People budget reduced but have narrowly managed to avoid curtailing services. However, many say they cannot continue operating under restricted funding indefinitely.

Voluntary organisations are becoming increasingly concerned about the future of the funding stream which was cut by £16.5m in 2005–06 to £407m, and is expected to have a £70m shortfall by 2008.

Jacqui Watt, chief executive of the SFHA, wrote to the communities minister Malcolm Chisholm last week warning that housing associations were facing the prospect of drastically curtailing services. She said that the research was proof that the executive’s reasoning that the cuts could be shouldered by making efficiencies was no longer tenable.

“All the evidence suggests that cuts to service provision are not being avoided, and the executive cannot simply stand back and say it is up to local authorities to continue to fund much-needed services on a drastically reduced budget,” warned Watt.

“We’re especially concerned that funding for new, lower level preventative services, which we know to be very effective, such as those for young homeless people, is no longer available in most areas,” she said.

Glen Graham of Loreburn Housing Association said that even where funding has not been cut by the local authority, the fact that the executive has not increased it in line with inflation means there has been a reduction in real money terms year on year.

“We have had to cut down our support in two projects for homeless young people from 24 hours to evening and weekend only, which means that existing service users are now receiving less intensive support than they need,” Graham said.

“With increasing homelessness referrals from the council, we also believe that there is increasing demand for support for vulnerable people in permanent tenancies who need support to help them sustain these and avoid falling into homelessness. However, housing support at present is crisis led rather than preventative.”

An spokesperson for the executive said that, despite the cuts, the Supporting People budget was still five times higher than it was in 2001.

The spokesperson added: “There was an overwhelming case for redistributing resources more fairly across Scotland – we couldn’t overlook the unfairness of per capita funding in one local authority area being £235, but only £19 in another. We are monitoring the impact of the budget changes.

“Our first monitoring returns from local authorities suggested that useful services were by and large being maintained. We recognise that concerns do exist about the possible impact on future services, and we’ll be monitoring that very carefully, in particular to ensure that all providers are being treated fairly.

“We will take careful note of the SFHA survey, but we need to await the next set of returns this summer from local authorities to get a complete picture.”