Supported Housing Expertise
Clear thinking for supported housing’s next chapter.
We research, write and convene on the questions shaping the sector: SHROA and licensing, the quality of exempt accommodation, and what really counts as care, support or supervision. Then we help providers, registered providers and councils act on the answers.
CoproducedThe sector’s SHROA consultation response, coordinated by SHP. Government has since dropped per-property licensing, as it argued.
New, free toolkit
Ready for licensing, with the evidence to show it.
The Licence Assurance Toolkit is a free set of registers, templates and standards that help supported housing providers build their licensing evidence before a council asks for it. It is a consultation draft, and we welcome comments until 31 January 2027.
- RiskA licence risk register and portfolio assurance map, so you can see where the gaps are.
- EvidenceAn evidence library standard, evidence pack standard and mock inspection protocol.
- Notices and incidentsRegisters and procedures for notices, changes, notifications and serious incidents.
- Boards and councilsQuarterly board reports, an annual assurance statement and a council assurance pack.
Latest thinking
What we are saying now
Long-form analysis of case law, policy and funding, written to be used: in claims, at tribunal, in board papers and in consultation responses. Browse all our thinking.
SHROA: Progress Made, But the Job Isn’t Finished
No new housing standards, but higher expectations. What the government response settles, and what it leaves open.
The framework is better. The outcome will depend on how well we use it.
The “More Than Minimal” Myth
Why some Housing Benefit decision-making turns a modest legal threshold into a demand for substantial personal support, and why that is wrong.
The End of the Property-Led Exempt Accommodation Contrivance?
A recent Upper Tribunal judgment and what it could mean for property-led models with no commitment to residents.
Themes
Influence, not just commentary
When the sector speaks together, government listens.
In 2025 SHP coordinated a coproduced response to the SHROA consultation. Many organisations contributed, and many more submitted it as their own. When the government responded in April 2026, several of its central positions had been adopted.
- LicensingPer-property licensing dropped in favour of licensing the person managing or controlling the housing.
- EnforcementImprovement notices and risk-based inspection before sanctions, protecting good providers.
- ExemptionsServices already regulated elsewhere exempted, to avoid duplicate oversight.
- AdvocacyThe Person-Centred Standard now recognises advocacy for residents who cannot speak for themselves.
The Exempt Accommodation Project
Good providers. The right landlord. Full subsidy.
Run by SHP, the Project is a community of good practice that brings stock-owning registered providers, supported housing providers and councils together. It raises quality and compliance, and it lets councils fully recover the Housing Benefit they pay on supported exempt and temporary accommodation.
3,000units of supported housing managed within the Project
100%subsidy recovery for councils, not 60% of the excess
£10m+saved by councils every year: tens of millions
Housing Benefit advice
Enhanced Housing Benefit, grounded in case law.
Michael Patterson reintroduced the term “intensive housing management” and has since developed a Housing Benefit eligibility framework for it, underpinned by Upper Tribunal and Commissioners’ decisions. We use it to build claims to the penny, per resident, per week, with an audit trail Revenues and Benefits can follow.
- Beyond general needs?R(H) 7/07
- Supportive in nature?Chorley BC v EM, CH/4432/2006
- A real difference?Bristol CC v AW, CH/200/2009
Working with SHP
From insight to practice
Our advisory work grows out of our research. The same evidence that shapes our writing shapes the partnerships, governance advice and claims we help build.
01
Exempt Accommodation Project
Leases and management agreements between approved providers and registered providers, inside a community of good practice.
02
Housing Benefit advice
Enhanced claims built on our case-law based eligibility framework for intensive housing management, and help for councils on subsidy loss.
03
SHROA & regulation
Helping boards and councils understand where licensing, standards and the fit and proper test leave them, and what to do next.
04
Briefings, training & speaking
Board and senior team briefings, public and tailored training, and conference contributions.
What guides us
Value Generation
The framework at the heart of SHP’s work: a values-based way of judging the quality of supported housing. Everything we write and advise on is tested against three questions.
Why it matters to us
We see people with additional needs as we see our own flesh and blood.
Everyone involved with SHP has direct, personal experience of additional needs within our own families. That is why quality, not volume, is the point.
01 · Qualitative
Outcomes for people
What changes for the people who live in the housing?
02 · Quantitative
Cost benefit to the public purse
What does it save, and can we prove it?
03 · Both
Wider social and community benefit
What does the neighbourhood, and the wider system, gain from this provision being here?
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Our latest thinking on SHROA, exempt accommodation and care, support or supervision, sent when it matters. Written for boards, providers, councils and commissioners who need to act on it.
- Briefings when policy, guidance or case law moves, not on a fixed schedule
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