Yesterday Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented her Autumn budget to Parliament.
Some of the changes announced to welfare benefits were particularly welcome, namely the scrapping of the two-child benefits cap, which has the potential to significantly reduce child poverty, and the ending of a benefits anomaly that penalises people living in supported housing by leaving them financially disadvantaged when they start working.
The latter is something that affects many of our clients at BHT Sussex, and through our Make Work Pay for Everyone campaign we have been working with partners and the Department of Work and Pensions to find a solution to this anomaly for more than two years. This campaign success is great news, particularly for clients of our Accommodation for Work project which offers accommodation and support for people experiencing homelessness to get back into work.
The cost-of-living crisis continues, and there were some steps taken in this Budget to address this, for example with reducing energy bills and raising the minimum wage. BHT Sussex is proud to pay the real Living Wage as a minimum to all our staff. Additional funding has also been announced to tackle poverty under the Warm Homes Plan, and we will seek further funding through this scheme to help us improve the environmental efficiency of our properties.
The decision to keep Local Housing Allowance frozen is disappointing, as is the fact that no new funding for supported housing has been announced, despite 1 in 3 supported housing providers closing schemes last year because of funding pressures. However, we will continue to push for more investment in these lifeline services through our involvement in the national Save Our Supported Housing campaign.
We will be sharing more insights as to how the recent budget changes affect our clients, tenants and organisation over the coming weeks, including by taking a more detailed look at the successful Make Work Pay for Everyone campaign.
