Redbridge Council is developing a new Supported Housing Strategy aimed at ensuring vulnerable residents can live independently in safe, high-quality homes with personalised support.
The strategy, which is a statutory requirement under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, will address the diverse needs of residents requiring support. These needs are categorised into three main types: short-term and transitional housing for those experiencing homelessness, care leavers, or victims of domestic abuse; support for working-age disabled adults, including those with mental health issues, learning disabilities, or autism; and provision for older people, such as sheltered housing and extra care facilities.
During a Housing Committee meeting on Wednesday, 2 September 2026, officers presented a draft of the strategy. Andrew Billany, Director of Housing, and Ben Tomlinson, Head of Housing Strategy, Quality and Assurance, outlined the projected increase in demand for supported housing. This demand is expected to rise due to an ageing population and increasing homelessness, with projections indicating an increase in Redbridge's adult population by +2.2% by 2030 and +7.5% by 2040. Specifically, demand for older people's housing could represent 80% of provision by 2040 in 15 years' time,
while demand for short-term and transitional housing is expected to increase in the medium term.
The strategy is built around four key objectives: ensuring the right housing in the right places,
promoting independence, prevention and positive move-on,
focusing on health, wellbeing and inclusion,
and fostering partnerships, quality and co-production.
Ensuring the 'right housing in the right places' involves sufficiency, quality, and local provision.
This objective aims to split the burden fairly across the whole of the borough so that people have got access to supported accommodation in their own locales.
The strategy will also ensure that the percentages match the needs in the borough
for different categories of supported housing, including transitional care, long-term care for working-age disabled individuals, and older people's care.
Councillors engaged in a detailed discussion, raising questions about ward-level data, the balance between local and out-of-borough demand, and the prevention of homelessness. Concerns were also voiced about the current supply and demand figures and the complexity of establishing supported housing. It was noted that setting up supported housing is very, very complicated at the moment
and that supported housing is not cheap.
The council aims to ensure the kind of supported housing that people can afford
by setting the right charges around rents and service charges.
Councillors highlighted that our supply doesn't meet the demand at the moment and I don't think any local authority in the land is doing so.
Officers highlighted that Redbridge is a net importer
of supported housing placements. This can lead to residents being disconnected from their support networks and can bring burdens with it, financial burdens, care burdens.
The proposed strategy aims to optimise provision within the borough and prevent over-provision that could attract complex cases from other areas. The government's impetus for the Supported Housing Act 2023 stemmed from reports of exploitation going on in Birmingham where unscrupulous providers were essentially charging exorbitant rents and providing very little in the way of services that ended up costing a lot of money in housing benefit.
The council aims to put a stop to that
and ensure value for money.
To actively promote independence, prevention and positive move-on,
the council intends to take a preventative approach first and foremost.
This includes doing things like adaptations to people's properties
such as adding handrails or installing stairlifts, and providing Meals on Wheels
and floating support in a whole range of settings
to allow people to retain their independence for longer.
A Disabled Facilities Grant
provides funding for such adaptations. For homeless households, the strategy will provide support to rough sleepers, homeless households, in order to get them to access employment so that they can live independently.
The strategy will also develop that kind of picture so that we can say we are moving people on effectively
by establishing KPIs for how long are people waiting for it and are people being moved on quickly enough.
The ultimate aim is that when people are moving out of supported housing it is a permanent move, it's sustainable and that they have been equipped with the skills to make a success of it living independently.
The health, wellbeing and inclusion
objective is all about the quality of care in place, so making sure that we are delivering a high standard of care to people and that there's safeguarding effectively so that everyone's looked after and no concerns about that.
The strategy aims for residents to be safer, more independent and more included.
Partnerships are envisioned with a wide range of stakeholders, including statutory partners like the NHS, police, and fire service; voluntary sector organisations such as Shelter, Homeless Link, and Age Concern; and community organisations. Providers of supported housing and health and social care colleagues will also be involved. These partners will play a role in ensuring system coordination
to act as one system,
contributing to quality and co-production
by ensuring that people are receiving value for money,
and tapping into networks to maximise in coordinating their efforts to look after people.
A multi-channel consultation process is planned to gather a wide range of views, including targeted outreach to vulnerable residents. A workshop is scheduled for November to further refine the consultation materials and the strategy itself.
The strategy is due to be formally consulted on for 12 weeks, with a publication deadline of 31 March 2027. Further details can be found in the Public reports pack.
