Non-Commissioned Exempt Accommodation — 23 Feb 2022 at 18:46

The majority of MPs voted in favour of emergency action to improve the quality of accommodation with associated care, support or supervision provided by councils, housing associations, charities, or voluntary organisations; the action being intended to get better value for benefit payments made in respect of such accommodation which are not subject to the usual caps, and to drive unscrupulous operators out of the sector.

The motion supported by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That this House
• notes the significant increase in the numbers of people housed in non-commissioned exempt accommodation under successive Conservative Governments;
• regrets the opportunities that this increase has provided for unscrupulous operators to exploit vulnerable individuals for financial gain at the taxpayers’ expense;
• recognises that a range of factors have driven the marked growth of this sector including a chronic shortage of genuinely affordable housing, reductions in funding for housing-related support, new barriers to access for single adults requiring social rented housing or mainstream privately rented housing, and a weakening of regulation and oversight;
• further regrets the detrimental impact that the growth of poor quality non-commissioned exempt accommodation is having on the health and well-being of those vulnerable individuals placed in it and on the public purse; and
• calls on the Government to introduce a package of emergency measures designed to secure immediate improvements in the quality of non-commissioned exempt accommodation and associated support, to ensure claims for exempt Housing Benefit consistently provide value for money and to drive unscrupulous operators out of the sector.

The term "exempt accommodation" appears to refer to a class of accommodation exempt from Housing Benefit payments as defined in Paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 to the The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006 which states:^[1]

• exempt accommodation” means accommodation which is—
• (a) a resettlement place provided by persons to whom the Secretary of State has given assistance by way of grant pursuant to section 30 of the Jobseekers Act 1995 (grants for resettlement places); and for this purpose “resettlement place” shall have the same meaning as it has in that section;
• or
• (b) provided by a non-metropolitan county council in England within the meaning of section 1 of the Local Government Act 1972, a housing association, a registered charity or voluntary organisation where that body or a person acting on its behalf also provides the claimant with care, support or supervision;

Paragraph 5 of Regulation 13 of The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, which sets the maximum rents to be paid via Housing Benefit, excludes exempt accommodation from the the rent caps.

Non-commissioned appears to mean "not commissioned by the local authority".^[2]

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• [1] Schedule 3 to the The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit(Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006, Legislation.gov.uk
• [2] House of Commons, Official Record, 23 February 2022, TheyWorkForYou.com

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