In this week’s Spring Statement, Rachel Reeves set out her plans to get Britain building again, increase defence spending in response to global turmoil and restore stability to public finances. All this, while staying within her self-imposed fiscal rules.
While the statement did not explicitly set out to address homelessness, it does address the housing crisis that is so clearly a part of the problem, and there are other measures in the statement that will affect homelessness, even if not explicit or intended.
Balancing the books
To balance the books, the Government proposes to reduce the money spent on disability benefits, in an ambitious plan to overhaul the benefit system. With the proposed measures they intend to help disabled people into employment, improve efficiency in the system and cut waste.
Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Minister, set out these measures last week when she published a green paper, launching a public consultation on the policy proposals to introduce these cuts.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the proposed reforms will save £3.4 billion, which is less than the £5 billion the government had hoped. The Disability Policy Centre however claims that the savings will, for the most part, be passed on as unintended expenses to other parts of the system, already under huge financial pressure. They conclude that actual savings will be about £100 million, or 2% of the £5 billion initially hoped. They call it an ’all pain, no gain scenario’.
Whether such numbers paint a true picture or not, it is clear that some of those unintended expenses will be passed on to already overstretched local authorities struggling to support the most vulnerable to whom they have a duty of care.
Homelessness services are already stretched to breaking point. Half of England’s local authorities are facing bankruptcy, many due to the sky-rocketing bill for supporting people in temporary accommodation.
The people affected
With 92% of people experiencing homelessness relying on benefits to get by (CHI Impact Seminar, 2022), it is clear there is a strong link between disability and homelessness.
The proposed welfare cuts concern the health element of Universal Credit, and Personal Independence Payment, otherwise known as PIP. For individuals relying on these benefits to make ends meet, an arbitrary rule change about which part of your body you are unable to wash unassisted, may be the difference between being able to pay your rent or not.
The government claims that those most in need will be protected, and yet according to their own analysis, one million ill and disabled people could lose PIP worth between £4,200 and £6,300 a year, and more than 3 million families will lose an average of £1,720 a year.
They further estimate 250,000 people will fall into relative poverty by the end of the decade as a consequence of these cuts. The Resolution Foundation however estimates that this is more likely to be 400,000, and warns of an average annual loss of £500 in 2030 for those in the poorest half of the population.
Getting Britain working
Other measures, including investment to support people back into work, will help some people’s finances improve, while gaining a sense of purpose and becoming contributing members of society. There is little doubt such a shift would be positive, and perhaps these measures will have the added benefit that employers begin to realise the value of hiring people with disabilities.
The Chancellor claims these ‘pro-job’ measures will help reduce poverty over time. Whether or not this will come to pass, it leaves a gap where a group of people will pay in the short term for a hoped for future benefit. While there is no doubt long term planning is essential, the most vulnerable should not pay the up-front price of future gains.
Getting Britain building
It is more positive to see the government repeat its commitment to getting building, with 1.3 million homes planned by the end of the decade. This will include 18,000 new social and affordable homes off the back of a fresh £2 billion investment toward social and affordable housing within the next two years, and more funding toward social and affordable housing to come.
This is a positive start, but a drop in the ocean if not significantly increased. There is a desperate need for social housing. Over the past ten years there has been a net loss of 180,067 social homes in England, in large part due to Right to Buy. This has been a big contributing factor to the dire situation we find ourselves in now.
The homelessness sector has long called for more social and affordable housing to be built. With more truly affordable housing, fewer people will be pushed into homelessness and more people will be able to move on from temporary accommodation.
This longer term planning is both welcome and needed. In the shorter term however, things look different. While some people may be happy to accept short term pain for long term gain, that is not an option for all.
Getting Britain housed?
The government’s commitment to addressing homelessness is evident in their ambition to ‘get Britain building’, and in other measures such as the cross departmental group on homelessness under Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
This dedication is needed, but it needs to be the right kind of housing; affordable, where it is needed and suitable to people's needs. Less than a year ago, the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee published a report on disabled people in the housing sector, showing there is little suitable move-on accommodation, making it almost impossible to move disabled people out of temporary accommodation and into suitable, dignified independent living.
And with just 9% of private rented homes accessible, renters living with a disability have the unenviable choice of paying inflated rents, or live in homes that aren’t suitable for their needs. As many renters use PIP to supplement basic expenses such as rent, these changes could force people out of their homes.
The risk of homelessness for people with disabilities is significant. Research by Habinteg Housing Association from 2022 found that a wheelchair user joining a local authority waiting list may have to wait up to 47 years for a new build wheelchair-accessible home.
While getting Britain housed is the long term ambition, in the short term, the measures proposed risk pushing more people further away from having a home, and making life harder for those already in temporary accommodation.
A joined up approach
There is no doubt we need more affordable and social housing. While we wait for that to materialise, the 126,040 households already stuck in TA need better standards, improved support and welfare reforms that make life easier, not harder. Punishing people at risk of homelessness, or already homeless in temporary accommodation, puts the proposed welfare cuts at odds with the government’s target to reduce homelessness in the short term. We need a joined up approach across different departments.
People who have already lost all, or are dangerously close to doing so, cannot be sacrificed, even if the intention is to reduce homelessness further down the line. The crisis is both urgent and severe, for Local Authorities across the country as well as the many thousands of adults and children who are stuck in desperately unsuitable accommodation.
It is regrettable that it is the most vulnerable, often homeless, who have been made to pay for a balanced budget.
