Terms & Conditions

[peterdelamothe]

No. Michael Gove announced the review or his Levelling Up dept did. Then he got fired by Boris Johnson the day before the latter resigned. Then Liz Truss told him his political career was over and he was then brought back by PM Sunak. Funnily enough I saw him just after Liz Truss had told him his fortune and he looked very depressed. A couple of weeks later…politics for you.

I asked DWP last September why this review was not being done by them and they said it was a joint agreement by the two government departments. What they also said to me….a bit of a shock…was that there were “no plans” to move this area to universal credit. Really? It does not fit in with how UC has been developed. Too much intervention by people.

We have seen a lot of stuff recently about this area including a panorama program about the “HB millionaires” making a fortune just a few weeks ago on bbc1. Unfortunately there is a huge housing agenda at this time …with mortgages soaring, illegal immigration hitting new highs and how and where to house them, the urgency of finding accommodation when building social housing is not happening amongst other issues. There is also the renters reform Act which was supposed to make life for renters much better. Except that rents are at their highest and available property at the lows. The Bank of England weighed in on that by saying the entire private rented sector is falling away and supply is dangerously low. A very unusual intervention by the BOE.

So with all of this, supported accommodation seems to have dropped down the agenda. Again.

One feature this week is the worry about older people and where do they live? The numbers of pension age living in the PRS has soared something like 73 per cent recently. High levels of divorce amongst older people etc. Can they be offered short term accommodation by the Council or housing associations was one question ? Sounds like a form of supported to me.

So yes reform is still on the agenda but no one has any idea what to do at this time. Kicking it all down the road and we have been here 12 or more years ago. I still remember a senoir DWP official promising it would all be resolved within 6 months. Yes…6 months of Sundays.