On 20 Feb 25, Government published its consultation on the implementation of measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, including National Supported Housing Standards enforced through a licensing regime and a link between these and Housing Benefit.
There has been much debate in the sector as to whether or not supported housing for older people e.g. sheltered, retirement or independent living schemes designated specifically for older people, falls within the scope of these proposals. It is not specifically referred to in the consultation document nor included amongst the list of types of supported housing in Part One, Section 3, paragraph 3.8, even though for some providers support provided to older people living in these schemes is designated as ‘enhanced or intensive housing management’ and therefore ‘supported exempt accommodation’ encompassed within the definition of ‘supported housing’ referred to in Part One, Section 1, paragraph 1.1.
Because of this lack of clarity, we wrote to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and received the following response:
“Sections 3.7-3.10 of the consultation set out which types of supported housing will need a licence. It depends exactly what services are delivered in the scheme, but our understanding is that most independent living and sheltered housing accommodation schemes are usually not packaged with care or support services and would be out of scope. I appreciate that there is some confusion being cause by the different definitions used in welfare law and rent regulation. To be clear, schemes that are able to make use of rent flexibility because they are specifically designed for a particular age group does not mean that they are in scope of the licensing regime. Similarly, the fact that a service charge is being made in respect of intensive housing management would not bring a scheme into scope of licensing. Only supported housing schemes where care, support or supervision is being delivered are affected by the proposals.”
It seems therefore that the majority of independent living/sheltered & retirement housing schemes would not fall within scope as the level of support provided is below the level encompassed within these proposals. Many of the consultation questions therefore do not apply to independent living/sheltered & retirement housing. If they were to apply, there would be significant implications; for example around using evidence from the erosh Independent Living Standards (ILS) which are more comprehensive than the principles in the proposals which are lacking important detail, and the implications of a licensing scheme and the linking of these to (in England*) housing benefit.
Whilst we appreciate the Government’s aim to deliver better value for money, to ensure accommodation and support is of high quality and to address “a minority of rogue landlords”, most independent living accommodation and support provided by registered social landlords is already of high quality, which an increasing number of providers are demonstrating through their accreditation against the erosh Independent Living Standards (ILS).
* Housing and social security policy are transferred in Northern Ireland. Housing policy is devolved in Scotland and Wales whilst HB policy is reserved across Great Britain.