Liberal Democrat County Councillors have opposed a £2.8million cut to the County Council’s Housing Related Support budget – the support the County Council gives to the county’s most vulnerable residents to support their housing needs.

Currently, Housing Related Support is a lifeline which provides help to 4,477 residents across the county. It helps people to cope and manage in their own homes, and supports those with mental health issues or people recovering from addiction with everyday tasks such as shopping, cooking and cleaning.

The support is frequently provided by the wardens in sheltered accommodation, making the provision of warden assisted accommodation financially viable. It also saves money by helping people before problems start to escalate and so preventing a more expensive support being needed further down the line.

But, under the County Council’s new proposals, all support from those who do not qualify for assistance under the Care Act (2014) will be withdrawn.

This will result in many residents being left without the vital support they need to remain in their own homes. It will also result in wardens being withdrawn from housing schemes where, with the loss of the support funding, the provision of warden assisted accommodation is no longer financially viable – with the result that the service will have to be provided by more expensive mobile teams for those who still qualify for the support.