Decision details

To pay £18,000 to Gloucestershire County Council to cover Cheltenham Borough
Council’s contribution towards the cost of commissioning a countywide supported
housing needs assessment.

The 2023 Supported Housing Regulatory Oversight Act (SHROA) places a statutory duty on
Cheltenham Borough Council to review the Borough’s supported housing needs and to publish
a supported housing strategy to set out how any current and future needs will be met. Under the
SHROA legislation, this strategy should be in place by March 2027.
The most sensible and cost-effective approach to delivering on these new statutory functions is
to work with Gloucestershire County Council and the other Gloucestershire Councils to produce
a jointly commissioned and funded countywide supported housing needs assessment, ahead of
developing a countywide supported housing strategy.
Cheltenham Borough Council have been provided with ringfenced funding from the Ministry of
Communities, Housing and Local Government (MHCLG) to support the Council in fulfilling these
statutory functions under the SHROA. The six Gloucestershire Councils and Gloucestershire
County Council have agreed financial contributions towards the total cost of commissioning and
producing the supported housing needs assessment, with Cheltenham’s agreed contribution being £18,000.
Once completed, the supported housing needs assessment will inform and support the
development of a countywide supported housing strategy, with specific sections addressing
need within Cheltenham Borough.

No alternatives considered. All district authorities agreed that a countywide commissioning of a
supported housing needs assessment would be the most cost effective and timely approach to
improve understanding of our respective supported housing needs, especially given the
government’s expectations for local housing authorities to have supported housing strategies in
place by March 2027.

Officers approached the Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services to seek feedback
on the proposal within this Officer Decision. Upon reviewing the proposal, the Cabinet Member
Housing and Customer Services indicated that they were happy with the proposed decision. As
per below, officers also consulted colleagues from Finance, who queried the duration of the
burdens funding received by the Council, to which officers clarified that additional new burdens
funding was expected in 2027/28, and that the current burdens funding must be spent by March
2027.