Housing and Regeneration Bill

My Lords, it is a delight to see so many speakers on a subject which not long ago attracted only a very few usual suspects, and it has been terrifically helpful to have had a number of briefings from organisations with interests in housing and regeneration. There are two notable absences from our Benches this evening—both of whom have good reasons: my noble friends Lady Scott of Needham Market and Lord Greaves. He said, ““They’ll just have to wait and see my amendments””. In this case, ““they”” includes me. However, I am delighted that my noble friend Lady Falkner of Margravine has joined the team for this Bill and my noble friend Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer could not keep away. I need to declare two interests: I am joint president—one of three—of London Councils and I still have an interest as a Member of the London Assembly, but that will not be the case by the time we reach Committee. As for the next stages of the Bill, I make a serious point on behalf of those of us who support it. A lot of amendments were made late in the Commons stages—I do not criticise that, because it is good that the Government respond to points that have been made—but there are rumours of many more amendments to come. If that is the case, I hope that we can see them well before the Committee stage, because the more time that we resourceless amateurs and the interest groups have, the more positive and constructive we can be. There will be a lot of detail to consider, and I am very grateful to those with an interest in the Bill for the material that they have sent. Perhaps I can use the medium of Hansard to thank them and to explain that it is simply not possible to do justice to their points at this stage—but we will. For now, I shall confine myself largely to headlines—not about housing generally, but about the Bill, except that I cannot allow the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, get away with airbrushing history in the way that he has. I do not think that he noticed that comment. On the Housing and Communities Agency, there is general agreement that it is a good thing to bring its predecessors, the current organisations, together, but I have wondered about how we get from here to there, about the distraction and disruption of the amalgamation process and the bureaucracy which will inevitably be involved. I hope that forming the HCA will not be as debilitating as some seem to fear as a matter of process. Earlier this afternoon I sat through the Third Reading of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill. A new organisation, the Local Better Regulation Office, has been formed and its constitutional status will transform as a result of that Bill. That is an interesting model to follow. An issue that runs through much of this Bill is governance—of the new regulator, of the providers and of the HCA. I understand that in London it is intended that the chief executive is to be the vice-chair, with the mayor chairing it. I am not making a party point here; I think it is right that the Mayor of London should chair it, but I wonder whether this confuses executive and board member responsibilities. That is an important point, as one of the HCA’s objectives is to uphold good governance. As has already been said, we will spend time on the HCA’s powers, and I hope that we can think about whether the proposals blur the distinction between a strategic role and delivery, or indeed whether there needs to be a combination of the two. The Minister has been forceful in her promotion of the new agency and the benefits that it will bring. She talked about a new culture, which is often as important as the detailed powers, but I, for one, am not terribly clear whether the Government are introducing entirely new powers which neither of the predecessor bodies had. Perhaps we can come to that. I share the concerns that have been expressed about the HCA assuming planning powers and a planning role. The White Paper said: "““The new homes agency will play a key role in supporting local government to realise its place-shaping role””." I emphasise its supporting role, but that is not to say that the HCA should not be more than a housebuilding agency. As has been said, we need to look at the use of land overall and not necessarily take the easiest development opportunities, and we need to consider in its widest sense the infrastructure needed to support communities. The Housing Corporation was, in its early days, chaired by Lord Goodman. It may be impertinent of someone who, as a very young and green solicitor, worked for him to say that a passage from his Dimbleby lecture of 1974 seems to be as good an explanation of the importance of good housing as any, but I shall be impertinent and quote a part of it: "““We have in this country no less than four million homes which for one reason or another are unfit for human habitation … just think of the millions of people in our society who are living in circumstances which are genuinely unfit—because the word ‘unfit’ means … that an intolerable burden of daily life is imposed upon these people, who are bereft of many of the essential requirements, living in squalid, unhygienic, congested circumstances which no human being should be asked to live in. Of course I am not saying that people in those conditions do not live decent, honourable lives … do not become great men … But if they do, think of the burden, think of the effort, think of the strain that is unnecessarily imposed upon them. And think of how many of them retain a permanent mark of the conditions in which they live … You cannot quantify the nature of the social resentment that these festering grounds of discontent create in our society. It is impossible to assess the cost of our neglect, the cost of our lethargy, in social and money terms. The question is why this has happened and how should we put it right””." Thirty-four years on, I look forward to discussing how we can progress on the issues of overcrowding, housing conditions, the quality of stock and so on. I know that the Minister has done a great deal of work in dealing with housing for older people, and I dare say that we will talk about some of that at following stages of the Bill. When reading in preparation for today, for the first time I came up against the term ““age-proofing””. I am not entirely sure that I like it because it sounds as though it is proofing against old people rather than for them. The demographics are important here, as is the environmental impact of what is done, although I do not want to reduce the importance of that by making only passing reference to it. I turn to the role of the regulator in all this: the tensions between regulation to drive up standards and the best interests of individual organisations; the danger of over-controlling without achieving good governance; and the danger of overlooking the very proper differences between different housing associations which reflect different circumstances. What about tenants? We talk a lot about tenants’ involvement in management but I think that we focus less on their role in governance, and I am concerned about that role. I am also concerned about the accountability structure, which is a subject not only for anoraks. We need to see how tenants, as well as landlords, engage with the regulator. There is clearly concern about the status of different housing providers, with scope for confusion, technical impacts and, as I understand it, very real impacts on the funds available. There are concerns about definitions of affordable housing and social housing, and, again, real impacts arise from that. It is unusual to see a sector calling on the Government to include it within regulation, but local government wants to be within the scope of Oftenant from the start. Given that the Government have consulted and not just produced the Bill out of the blue, it is a pity that that is not reflected in the Bill and that the Government are still working on the issue. It is a good point that consistency for tenants of different landlords should be achieved. The ALMOs make similar points. This is a big Bill. It may of course get bigger as we cover issues from ““ground 8”” to community land trusts and much in between. Let us prepare for a great deal of work.