The Government are today confirming individual grant allocations to "Administering Authorities for the Supporting People Programme in 2007-08" which will fund housing related support services for over 1 million vulnerable people—including victims of domestic violence, teenage parents, older people and those with mental health problems—to live independently in their accommodation.

As part of the two-year local government funding settlement in December 2005, minimum allocations for 2007-08 were announced guaranteeing 95 per cent. of the total available. Some 5 per cent. of the funding was held back pending consultation on the draft Supporting People distribution formula, with a commitment to confirming full Supporting People allocations for 2007-08 before the summer recess.

The consultation on the Supporting People distribution formula is now complete and responses to this exercise have been assessed. Following consideration of the available options a decision has been taken to target the remaining funding in 2007-08 to help address some of the inherited uneven distribution of grant between authorities by increasing Supporting People funding to over half of all Supporting People local authorities.

This decision is consistent with the approach taken to determining allocations in both 2005-06 and 2006-07 when an earlier version of the formula was used to inform the grant allocations to those authorities furthest from their correct relative share of the budget. Further work will be carried out on the analysis of responses to the consultation with a view to taking forward work on how we can distribute future funding based on need. All Supporting People grant allocations are listed below.

The Government are also targeting funding from the Supporting People programme to assist linked programmes of national importance.

This early announcement of funding for 2007-08 will help provide the stability required by local authorities and the sector in order to plan for the future.