The Audit Commission's 2013 report Tough Times makes sobering reading for all those concerned about investment in public services. Despite local authorities responding well in the circumstances, there are very real pressures when it comes to ensuring all needs are met as funding cuts bite.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the provision of social care.

Disabled people have seen, in some areas, swingeing cuts to social care provision, with councils being forced to tighten eligibility criteria or charge more for services, or a mixture of the two.

When it comes to people with long-term disabilities, there is a scheme that not only helps to support them in appropriate housing, but is also a route to home ownership for them.

The problem is, schemes such as Home Ownership for people with Long term Disabilities (HOLD) do not have a high profile.

While home ownership may not be a priority for disabled people, their ability to live full and active lives, and to be as independent as possible, is.

Since 1998, more than 1,600 disabled people have bought a stake in a home that they've chosen with the help of payments to cover the mortgage interest through the HOLD and similar programmes, using the SMI (Support for Mortgage Interest) scheme that helps fund mortgage interest payments for low-income households.

People such as Sarah Cookson, who says ‘Even I'm amazed at what I have become and what I do'. Or people like Trevor Sasar-de-Sain, whose doctors ‘couldn't believe' the progress after a year of him moving into his shared ownership home.

He says: ‘The change is purely due to the house and having the right environment to support my mental health.'

Or people like Xenia Kyriacou, who struggled with living in both residential care and group home settings, exhibiting challenging behaviour which meant both she, and those around her, were not safe.

Since moving into her shared ownership property, her regular admissions to hospital – around 20 a year, at an estimated cost of £5,000 a time – have dwindled to none, saving the hard-pressed NHS significant costs.

These cases are highlighted in Space to Live, a report from Advance, the housing, care and employment support provider, and Disability Rights UK, the organisation led by disabled people.

Advance has also published a policy briefing on HOLD, which calls for a summit of interested parties, including experts and lenders, to explore and discuss the role of shared ownership.

The policy briefing points out that the scheme increases choice and encourages the independence of disabled people, supporting the personalisation agenda. Shared ownership schemes can also reduce reliance on other types of institutional assistance, such as residential care.

They provide good value for money by decreasing hospital admissions and reducing social care packages, as well as promoting community integration and diverse neighbourhoods.

Such benefits mean that councils have an inevitable interest in promoting, supporting and using shared ownership schemes. 

With the additional focus on the requirement to avoid out of area placements, the shared ownership route could further help lessen the demands on local authorities; and, of course, support disabled people who want to stay in their local area and all of the benefits that brings in terms of choice, control, and continuing to be part of the communities they already live in.

Sadly, the scheme is under threat. Changes to the rules on SMI means the number of people who have benefitted from HOLD has shrunk to a trickle. What was already complicated and cumbersome has become nearly impossible to negotiate.

In the meantime, we're still waiting for the much-delayed response from the Department for Work and Pensions on the consultation on the future of SMI, which could make or break the future of the scheme.

The capital funding settlement for 2015-18 shows there will be an option for housing associations to bid for grant funding for HOLD, which is welcome, although we do not know how much funding is available.

Some disabled people require significant support, but struggle to have their voices heard. Everyone recognises that resources are driving much of the current care agenda, and the way councils deal with the demands placed on them when economic times are tough.

The danger of this reality is that the principles of personalisation and the rhetoric of choice become relegated.

The HOLD, and other shared-ownership schemes, are a route to avoid that, and give disabled people the support they need.

Tim Cooper is the CEO of Advance