Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, for so seamlessly picking up our debate where we abandoned it last week and concluding what I thought was a very good debate on a very important clause, Clause 88, which goes to the heart of what the regulator is about. This is a large group of amendments. I shall be as clear as I can in addressing them but I also want to be as expeditious as possible as we have a challenging timetable today. I start therefore with the remarks of the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, who spoke to five amendments in this group, including Amendments Nos. 102ZD and 103C, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, has just spoken, which would raise the regulator’s objective 10 above all its other objectives. The group also includes Amendment No. 103ZA, which would place a requirement on the regulator to ensure that tenants have adequate information about the standards of their housing services, and Amendments Nos. 103E and 104ZA, which seek to ensure a level playing field for all providers of social housing—all in their way excellent amendments and all ones that I cannot argue with in their intent. Amendments Nos. 102ZD and 103C take objective 10 as it stands and prioritise it over the other nine objectives. The objectives are not random and objective 10, minimising interference, is as important as each of the others. It expresses the balance that we want to achieve between driving improvements among poor providers without increasing the regulatory burden for good providers. By making it an objective, we have not diminished the fact that minimum interference is, of course, a working principle, as it is with other regulators. That goes without saying. We have done something better in this Bill—we have made it clear that it is sufficiently important to be ranked as something that the regulator should positively aim for. That is a very powerful point. At the same time, given the absence of market power, which we will debate in this part of the Bill, the regulator has to start by asking how he will address the weak consumer position of tenants. That is the right question. The problem with the amendment is that it changes that; it would require the regulator to start instead by asking how he minimises interference for providers. That seems misplaced and to send the wrong signal in the context of what the Bill is trying to do for the first time. I am afraid that tenant confidence would suffer, but I am also afraid that there would be practical consequences as well, not least because it is vital that the regulator acts early to prevent and resolve serious failures. We do not want that to be inhibited, and this amendment could make that harder. We do not think that it is in the interests of tenants or in the interests of trying to achieve genuine improvements. Amendments Nos. 103ZA and 102B are about the importance of ensuring that tenants have access to information about the standards of their housing. Again, that is absolutely central to the effectiveness of the Bill. The Cave review made it clear, as did the National Federation of ALMOs, that this is central to giving real meaning to the power of choice. To be useful, information about management needs to be in a suitable format; for example, it should allow comparisons between local landlords, which should be broken down by local authority—and we will come on to that a little later. So we have no difficulty whatever with the principle of the amendment. Our strong view, however, is that that crucial outcome is already provided for in the Bill. Let us turn, for example, to the second objective of the regulator, which includes ensuring that tenants and potential tenants have an appropriate degree of choice. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, is absolutely right: there cannot be choice without information. Clause 202 imposes a statutory duty, not just an objective, on the regulator to publish information about the performance of registered providers at least once a year. The clause also requires that information to include information likely to be useful to tenants and potential tenants. This is very important, because it ensures that tenants and potential tenants can get their hands on performance information in a form that is useful to them. There cannot be genuine choice without reliable and accessible information about the quality of the alternatives that are available. The clause ensures that this kind of information is regularly available. Clause 201 will enable the regulator to collect whatever information it needs from registered providers in order to meet its statutory duty under Clause 202, but it can also use other information. It can rely on monitoring powers, including powers to commission surveys, inspections and audits, which are set out in Chapter 6. It is not confined simply to the duties in these clauses. I hope that that is reassuring and helpful. Amendments Nos. 103E and 104ZA are the final amendments in the group of amendments tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, and seek to ensure a level playing field for all providers of social housing. Again, that is a noble intent. The context is that there are, and will continue to be, different actual and potential registered bodies: housing associations; private non-profit bodies, which are often charitable; local authorities, should they own homes in the future; ALMOs; public bodies; and private profit-making bodies, which we are allowing to register for the first time. Those different types of organisation all have different constitutions, forms of governance, status, benefits, duties and rights. There is great strength in that diversity in the mixed economy, provided that they deliver the same best outcomes for tenants and the best use of public resources. The noble Earl can probably anticipate what I am going to say next, which is that, given the above, it is not realistic or desirable to apply the same regulatory powers to all types of provider. There is no point having controls over changes to constitutional bodies other than housing associations. There is, however, another general point that is well served by the amendment and the Bill. To have a thriving and competitive market for the supply and management of social housing, it will be necessary to deliver the statutory objectives in Clause 88: to encourage and support the supply of well managed social housing, and to ensure that providers perform functions efficiently and effectively. Competition can be a powerful means to important ends, but it is not an end in itself and so should not be in the list of objectives. It will certainly be worked out in the way in which the objectives are implemented. Amendments Nos. 102A and 108A were tabled by my noble friend Lady Wilkins, who unfortunately cannot be in her place today. Simply, we had a long debate on these issues in the context of the HCA. I talked about how our work on the ageing strategy and lifetime homes will help to support local authorities and housing associations to be more mindful of the rights and needs of their communities. That means building homes and communities that are inclusive and accessible. I said a few moments ago that the regulator’s first objective will be to encourage and support a supply of well managed social housing of an appropriate quality that is also sufficient to meet reasonable demands. That stresses the importance of inclusivity and accessibility. Good management provides housing of an appropriate quality that is sufficient to meet reasonable needs. That implies that housing needs to be suitable for existing and potential clients, some of whom will be disabled. I also assure the noble Baroness that the second objective in Clause 88(3) states that the regulator should, "““ensure that actual or potential tenants of social housing have an appropriate degree of … choice, and … protection””." That covers her desire to see inclusive and accessible homes. I understand the desire to add more functions to the objectives—the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, also talked about this—so that they explicitly cover specific issues. Nothing divides us on the importance of these issues, but the impact should give cause for concern. What we have tried to do is give the regulator the clearest possible focus and clarity. We need a small number of clear high-level objectives appropriate to meet reasonable demands of providing quality housing. My fear is that if we require him to navigate a complex web of statutory duties, he will be less effective. The standards in Clause 191(1) already permit the regulator to set out the nature, extent and quality of accommodation. It would already be possible, if the regulator considered it appropriate and necessary to do so, for him to set standards relating to the accessibility of housing after consultation with representatives of tenants and with the Secretary of State. I will make sure that my noble friend understands that point. We have already dealt with Amendment No. 103D proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, in relation to the overarching nature of objective 10. I do not know whether she spoke to Amendment No. 102C. Would she prefer me to write on that?