Supported Housing: the missing link in social care reform

The Government has published its Local Supported Housing Strategies framework under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 (SHROA). The statutory guidance sets out that local authorities must review their supported housing and develop and publish a Local Supported Housing Strategy in partnership with housing, social care, health and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations to gain a comprehensive understanding of its ‘supply’, ‘unmet need’ and ‘future demand’ and to address these areas in their strategies. This is a critical moment for the sector, however, without adequate funding and support, there is a risk that regulation could shrink supply rather than strengthen it. 

Supported housing at its best, and with the right support, plays a critical role in delivering the Care Act. It provides secure housing for those people who need the most support with the stability to live well and independently in their communities. It plays a vital role in prevention, including reducing the demand for costly residential care, supporting people with timely and safe hospital discharges, delivering better outcomes for people, local authorities and the NHS.  

Yet despite all these outcomes, we have seen how years of austerity and short-term funding have reduced the capacity of local government to invest in the wider support ecosystem and to join the dots between housing, care and health. Figures drawn from the Government’s Supported Housing Review (2023) suggest the UK is falling short of around 325,000 supported homes.  

Research commissioned by the National Housing Federation indicates an estimated £33.9bn in capital investment is needed by 2040; meanwhile spending on temporary accommodation has risen. Without national action, councils cannot close this gap. This leads local government to depend on high-cost, reactive interventions to support people rather than early support and prevention at a time when they are already under financial pressure. The ADASS Autumn Survey 2025 highlighted that Adult Social Care Directors across England were estimating the largest projected overspend of £623mn for 2025/26. 

For supported housing to shift from crisis response to sustainable delivery, there needs to be deliberate, system-wide partnership working which aligns housing, care, health and planning. Cornwall is a great example of this partnership. It involves commissioning and housing teams co-leading the delivery of the council’s supported and specialist housing strategy, while Bristol council’s long-term contracts with trusted providers, has enabled greater market stability. This has improved outcomes for people in supported housing and seen stronger control over council spending. 

National policy must incentivise and support place-based models to integrate housing, care and health as part of a single system. 

These challenges were discussed at an event at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth. The session involved ADASS, Cornwall Council, Bristol City Council and Harbour Housing and a series of asks were set out for the Government to action to ensure supported housing is at the forefront of policy, planning and investment to deliver change. These asks included: 

1. Casey Commission: To review adult social care in context, not in isolation, as part of a wider system that includes the NHS, VCSE organisations and local authority housing and planning teams – and place supported housing at the heart of social care reform, explicitly recognising it as core social infrastructure rather than a peripheral issue.  

2. National Housing Strategy: To clearly recognise, plan for and enable sufficient specialist and supported housing as essential social infrastructure, embedded in core housing strategies and planning guidance.  

3. Ring-fenced funding: To allocate dedicated revenue funding for supported housing, giving councils the means and providers the long-term certainty to invest at scale. To quantify the systems savings derived from this investment to evidence the economic case for specialist and supported housing policy.  

4. Across Government: To put people first in policy, planning, funding and delivery, grounding reform in what people need to live well – safe, stable homes and the right care and support at the right time. 

As government shapes the next phase of reform through the Casey Commission, the National Housing Strategy and wider cross government decisions, supported housing must move from the periphery to centre stage as a powerful solution to delivering better outcomes for people. With the right policy framework and system-wide partnerships, we can shift from crisis response to prevention, grounding reform to support the most vulnerable people in society to live well in stable homes and the right care and support at the right time. 

Neil Revely is an associate member and Housing Lead for ADASS