Autumn budget 2017 A Foundations briefing

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1 Autumn budget 2017 A Foundations briefing November 2017

About Foundations Our Mission To share the

and adaptation services Our Vision A thriving

people to live safe, independent and happy

Objectives Identify and meet the training

providers and commissioners and facilitate

the sector Develop tools and resources for

quality and performance and find out what good

assurance systems Provide an information

2 About Foundations Our Mission To share the magic about what makes good home improvement and adaptation services Our Vision A thriving range of home improvement agencies supporting people to live safe, independent and happy lives in the home of their choice Our Objectives Identify and meet the training needs of the sector Engage with stakeholders, providers and commissioners and facilitate networking opportunities Represent and promote the sector Develop tools and resources for providers and commissioners Monitor activity, quality and performance and find out what good looks like Develop and promote quality assurance systems Provide an information management and workflow system For more information visit: 1

3 Autumn budget briefing Of the top three spending commitments for made in the 2017 Autumn Budget, spending on the NHS and Housing are only separated by contingencies to pay for Brexit. On the face of it, this would indicate that the priorities for the HIA sector and Private Sector Housing Services are well catered for. Indeed the provision of an additional 42 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant in year, which increases the total budget for this year to 473 million, demonstrates that the assurances provided by government departments at this autumn s DFG Roadshows are underpinned by rising financial commitment from treasury. Additional resources for the NHS to cope with demand in the coming winter and a further 1.6 Billion revenue funding for the NHS in are matched by 2.6 Billion capital for local Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships to deliver transformation schemes that improve their ability to meet demand for local services. Foundations reaction: The rising DFG budget is enormously welcome as a spur to deliver both efficiently and innovatively. Additional Funding for the DFG within the Better Care Fund and capital funding for local Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships should provide additional encouragement for local Better Care Fund stakeholders and Sustainability and Transformation planners to come up with jointly agreed person-centred -place based solutions that improve the resilience of older people in their own homes and prevent or delay their admission to acute or residential care settings. However, this must be predicated on Housing Authorities and providers of housing services, Welfare authorities and commissioners of health services engaging much better together in the context of Health and Wellbeing boards and Sustainability and Transformation partnership priorities. The additional resources provide an opportunity to ensure that social care, housing and community based preventative services form part of the uplift. Foundations also looks forward to helping government provide support Spending and tax announcements on Housing in the budget were largely concerned with raising the housing supply from last year to a year for the next 5 years. To this end the chancellor announced a basket of measures including: An additional 15.3 billion of new financial support for housing over the next five years, bringing total support for housing to at least 44 billion over this period 2

4 Planning reforms that will ensure more land is available for housing, and that better use is made of underused land in cities and towns. The chancellor explicitly ruled out relaxing strictures on the green Belt. The building of 5 new garden cities in the longer term. providing 204 million of funding for innovation and skills in the construction sector, including to train a workforce to build new homes Confirmation of the extra 2Billion investment for social housing providers announced in October and lifting Housing Revenue Account borrowing caps for councils in areas of high affordability pressure, so they can build more council homes. The big tax concession on Housing was the abolition of Stamp Duty for Houses costing less than for first time buyers. Foundations reaction: These measures will do little to address the pressures of an Ageing Society on the existing Housing Market. Apart from the offer of 400 million of loan funding for estate regeneration to transform run-down neighbourhoods and provide new homes in high demand areas the budget does little to address disrepair in the existing housing stock where most older people live. Incentives to first time buyers do not encourage older people to move from inappropriate or under occupied family homes. Local Government Finances The budget announced a pilot of 100% business rates retention in London in in addition to existing and new pilots on business rates retention across England. Foundations reaction: Successive Foundations Budget Briefings have questioned whether the retention of local business rates to replace allocations from central government will be able to provide enough funding, distributed to areas of greatest need to meet the demands on Social Care services locally which as the LGA submission in the run-up to this budget noted will top 60% of local authority budgets. This Budget was silent on Social Care funding which is subject to consultation in the current parliament. However, this means that the challenge of sustaining discretionary and preventative housing services across local authorities in England will remain hugely difficult and risks attrition of these services unless they can be properly integrated in a joined up health and care system. The proposed planning reforms do not incentivise the development of specialist housing for older and disabled people and the retention of the Green Belt will continue to provide impediments to developing new housing for an increasingly ageing population in rural counties. 3

5 Welfare and Pensions: The Chancellor announced measures to ease the roll-out of Universal Credit in response to pressures and hardships caused by the waiting periods and personal budgeting requirements in the UC system hitherto administered. This means that: The seven day wait period before a claim could be accepted has been scrapped. Households applying for Universal Credit will get more upfront support. Households in need who qualify for Universal Credit will be able to access a month s worth of support within five days, via an interest-free advance, from January This can be repaid over 12 months. Housing Benefit will continue to be paid for two weeks after a Universal Credit claim. It will be made easier to pay the rental part of Universal Credit directly to the landlord. For Pensioners, the government has honoured its election pledge to retain the triple lock and State Retirement Pension will rise by 3% or 3.65 per week for the full basic State Pension. The Standard Minimum Guarantee in Pension Credit will match the cash rise in the basic State Pension. The full new State Pension will also be increased by the triple lock, rising by 4.80 per week. 4

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Spending Review Summary 2015

Spending Review Summary 2015 November 2015 Copyright Astral PS Limited - All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by