Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 104AA: 104AA: After Clause 88, insert the following new Clause— ““Duty to involve tenants of social housing and members of the public (1) It shall be the duty of the regulator, in performing its functions, to ensure that tenants of social housing, bodies representing their interests and, where appropriate, members of the public are involved in the exercise of its functions. (2) The regulator must take such steps as it considers appropriate to secure the involvement of tenants of social housing and bodies representing them in the exercise of its functions in the manner referred to in subsection (1).”” The noble Earl said: This is a fairly simple amendment, the aim of which is to require the regulator to engage and involve tenants, and members of the public where appropriate, when carrying out its regulations and inspections of social housing providers. There is currently no specific duty to engage social housing tenants. We saw the list of duties in Clause 88, but there was no mention of engaging with social housing tenants. Involving service users and the public is, we are told, a key part of the Government’s strategy for ensuring that people have an opportunity to have their say and to become involved in their local services. The amendment, which is supported by a number of organisations—including the National Consumer Council, the National Housing Federation, the Local Government Association, the National Federation of ALMOs, to name a few—would also ensure that the regulator had a duty to engage with the National Tenant Voice, a new national body that represents the interests of social housing tenants. The Minister has said that the Bill will ensure that tenants are at the very heart of the new regulatory system—I think she wrote that in a letter to us recently—but the Bill does not go far enough in meeting the proposals of the Cave report to ensure that tenants are at the heart of the new regulatory system. It is important that the Tenant Services Authority has a duty to engage with tenants in carrying out its functions. I beg to move.