I understand that total spending on rent supplements under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is expected to reach £134 million this year. I do not have information on the estimated cost of this scheme, which is the responsibility of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, in future years.
A total of £6 billion was included in the national development plan for the provision of social and affordable housing. An additional £1 billion has been provided under the Government Action on Housing of June 2000, bringing the total housing allocation to £7 billion over the period of the National Development Plan, 2000-2006. This major investment will greatly increase social housing output and help to reduce dependence on rent subsidy. There is, of course, a significant proportion of rent supplement claimants whose need is for income support to meet short-term needs rather than, for example, local authority housing.
It is also proposed, as signalled in Action on Housing, to develop a new mechanism involving local authority/private sector arrangements to provide rental accommodation for eligible households who would otherwise be dependent on SWA rent supplementation. This approach will be pursued initially on a pilot basis. However, commencement of pilot schemes has been delayed pending agreement of liaison arrangements with health board CWOs.