Hertfordshire County Council provides update on £47.7m 820-home supported living project

The county council’s adult care services committee met on Thursday, where members were presented with a comprehensive report on the progress of the Supported Living Programme.

The Supported Living Programme was approved in February 2025 and is a key council priority, with a five-year plan to deliver 820 new homes by 2030, financed by a £47.7 million investment.

To date, 231 prospective new homes have been identified, but the scheme is reliant on registered housing providers who have expressed a “reduced appetite for supported living”, as well as “challenging” market conditions.

The progress report was produced in response to a motion drafted by Cllr Tony Kingsbury (Conservative, Welwyn Hatfield), which ‘invited’ the executive to commission a review into the delivery and impact of the programme.

The report states: “Following completion of Year 1 (2025/26), the programme has established a good foundation, with 231 homes identified across delivered, in-progress, and pipeline stages.

“Progress has been strongest in council-led schemes, which are exceeding initial expectations, while the modernisation of existing homes is progressing in line with the plan.

“Delivery through the capital grant workstream has proved more challenging than anticipated. This reflects wider challenges across the supported housing sector, including market conditions, funding pressures, increasing regulation, and a more cautious approach from registered providers, resulting in a greater focus on delivery through Section 106 agreements and alternative delivery models.

“While good progress has been made, delivery remains reliant on partnerships with registered providers. Reduced national appetite for supported housing continues to affect the pace at which schemes can be brought forward. In response, the council is exploring alternative delivery routes and reviewing key commercial and internal enablers.

“At the same time, Year 1 has provided a more robust understanding of demand. This indicates lower overall need than originally projected, alongside increased use of lower-intensity support.

“This creates an opportunity to broaden the programme’s scope, supporting a wider range of cohorts and enabling more flexible, person-centred solutions.”

The proposer of the motion, Cllr Tony Kingsbury, told the meeting: “The motion is not one about revisiting the decision; the programme was approved by cabinet with broad support, and its objectives remain as important today as it was when it was agreed.

“Instead, this motion is about scrutiny and concerns about the progress of this programme. Programmes of this size and complexity inevitably evolve over time. They involve significant capital investment, partnership working and are fundamental to both service delivery and financial planning.

“It is therefore entirely appropriate that this panel receives a comprehensive update on how delivery is progressing.”

Tom Hennessy, operations director for older people and health, said: “We set out an ambitious five-year plan for delivery of 820 supported living homes by 2030, supported by an investment of £47.7 million.

“The programme review has already been planned. We said we would review the numbers, and that’s what we have been doing. This reflects the scale and complexity of the delivery, and the council motion has served as a real opportunity to strengthen and accelerate that review process, so for that we are grateful

“The programme, we believe, has made quite strong early progress. At the end of year one, we have 231 homes that have been identified across all delivery stages, with 44 homes delivered, 104 homes in progress and 83 homes in the pipeline.

“We believe this provides a robust foundation to scale delivery in future years.”

Seema Aggarwal, business improvement manager and one of the authors of the report, said: “We’re really pleased with where we are with the programme today; 231 homes being identified is a significant achievement for the programme.

“It doesn’t come without its challenges… one was about the capital grant routes. One of the troubles that we’ve had within the market is that prior to the programme coming to you in 2025, we had a really strong appetite from registered providers – with around 10 local geographically-based housing providers – with real interest and ability at that point to be able to develop and invest in Hertfordshire.

“Through 2025 and 2026, we’ve seen a real shift and understandably, the landscape has really changed over that period of time.

“Providers are really taking it from a regulatory point of view; there’s so much more significant responsibility that’s set on them to actually abide by laws. There’s an increase in costs now: construction, buildings, and everything is going up as well, and we’re really seeing that through.

“We need to resolve the issue with the market in order to make the programme successful as well. We’re starting to build a strategic partnership with registered providers, and this mirrors what Homes England [the government’s housing and regeneration agency] does, so we will target it on registered, selected providers who have got a real vested interest and they’ve got the financial ability to be able to develop and support assisted living.”

Ms Aggarwal added the council was looking at increasing its use of Section 106, as well as strengthening partnerships with districts and boroughs.

Cllr Rachel Carter (Green, Hertford St Andrews) said: “I suppose the things the private equity companies have blamed the failures on are a lack of regulation. It’s good there is some regulation, but obviously we need to keep an eye on that.”

In response, Ms Aggarwal referred to a new piece of legislation coming into effect next year – The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act – otherwise known as The SHROA Act.

The new law gives local authorities stronger powers to regulate exempt supported housing, enforce national standards, and stop “rogue providers” from exploiting housing benefits.

Ms Aggarwal added: “That’s one of the reasons we’re seeing a challenge in the market because regulators are having to be more mindful of what they’re actually delivering, even as housing associations.

“For us, it takes away the responsibility…. having regulated providers out there [means] it is a good thing the SHROA Act is coming in, because it protects our tenants as well as our residents… It’s something we’ve long been waiting for.”

Cllr Nigel Bell (Labour, West Watford) praised the motion and added: “I think it’s very important to bring that to see where we’re going and know the progress. Obviously, it will be interesting to see in September when you get more data.”

Cllr Calvin Horner (Lib Dem, Bishop’s Stortford East), vice chair of the committee, added: “It is such an important service and it’s vital that we get it right… I’m really pleased with the progress we have had so far, and I’m also pleased to see that a lot of the assumptions that this programme was built on are being reviewed.”

Cllr Tony Kingsbury said: “I’m really impressed with the report… for a motion that went in a little while ago, there’s an awful lot of detail in the report and it’s really good to see where we are with those things.”