Shadow Communities Secretary Mark Isherwood has called for assurances that the extra annual £10 million announced last month for the Supporting People programme will go where it needs to go.
The programme prevents homelessness and supports over 60,000 marginalised and at risk people in Wales each year to live independently in their own homes, and with dignity in their community.
With over 750,000 lives having been transformed since its inception in 2004, Mr Isherwood has long been calling for its budget to be protected and therefore welcomed last month’s announcement that the Programme will receive an additional £10 million in each of the next 2 years, with £4 million of the £10 million going through the Cabinet Secretary for Communities’ Budget. However he is supporting calls for this £4 million to be ring-fenced for housing associations and third sector providers.
Raising the matter in the Assembly Chamber yesterday with the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Carl Sargeant AM, he said:
“At the end of last month, the Welsh Government announced that £10 million annually, for two years, was being restored onto the Supporting People programme. Of course, it was well received, and £4 million of that will go through your own departmental budget. The sector responded warmly, but called for an assurance that this money would be ring-fenced for housing associations and third sector providers. Will it be so, or what assurance can you provide, working with them, that this money will go where it needs to go?”
The Secretary replied: “This wasn’t money put back into the system; this was additional money. This Labour Government here in Wales has put in an additional £10 million for two years to tackle homelessness—£6 million of that into the revenue support grant and £4 million into my budget line. I can’t guarantee what that will look like, because it’s about working with the sector and organisations to get the best value to tackle issues around homelessness, and I’m in discussions with agencies already about how that will look in terms of delivery for the future.”
Mr Isherwood added: “Of course, it was a restoration of money that had been taken out of the Supporting People budget since 2013, and that was welcomed, but we do need to know if it will be ring-fenced because it’s about working with people, for example, through the Big Lottery-funded People and Places programme, which must be funding projects that are people-led, strength-based and supporting people and communities to build on the knowledge, skills and experience that they already have. Again, how will you ensure therefore that this fits those sorts of programmes, and enables people themselves to directly participate in the improvements in their own lives?”
The Cabinet Secretary told Mr Isherwood “We are working with organisations external to the public sector in the third sector.”