Grant will put spotlight on Blackpool housing

Blackpool Council has received funding for a pilot scheme for supported housing

The funding will be used for a pilot study to explore how supported housing in the resort can be improved.

Blackpool currently has around 550 supported housing bed spaces but concerns have been raised about the quality of accommodation, with fears some badly run schemes have become a magnet for anti-social behaviour.

In January this year, councillors heard landlords were buying up cheap property in the town and converting it to supported housing which attracts higher levels of housing benefit.

But in some cases the support given added up to only three hours a week.

Kelly Tolhurst, minister for rough sleeping and housing, who announced the funding of £686,648, said it would be used to address some of these issues.

She said: “Providing good quality homes to people who have been homeless, or who are unable to live independently, is fundamental to our support for vulnerable people

“I know that most supported housing providers already provide a good service and it is right that we expect standards to be high.

“My statement today sends a strong message to providers that don’t meet our benchmark that they need to shape up.

“The pilots we are funding will explore different approaches to supported housing, to further raise the quality of service in Blackpool.”

Blackpool is among five areas including Birmingham, Bristol, Hull and Blackburn to share a £3m pot of cash.

The schemes will focus on short-term supported accommodation and will run until the end of March 2021, testing different approaches to greater oversight of the sector to improve quality.

A meeting of Blackpool Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee in January heard higher rents of up to £355 a week for supported housing has attracted some unscrupulous landlords with the prospect of bigger profit margins.

The meeting heard problems had cropped up in areas including central Blackpool and South Shore.

The kind of tenants eligible to live in supported housing includes people recovering from drug or alcohol dependency, offenders and ex-offenders, people with mental ill health, youngsters leaving care and those at risk of domestic abuse.