Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 107D: 107D: After Clause 123, insert the following new Clause— ““Accountability of providers (1) Every registered provider shall prepare a policy statement showing how it will account to residents for the performance of its functions in relation to social housing. (2) The policy statement shall be published in printed or electronic form and a copy supplied to the regulator.”” The noble Lord said: We are back on to accountability and impairment. Here, it is the question of the accountability of housing providers, particularly to their tenants or occupants. The Bill does not satisfactorily meet the requirement for housing providers to tell their tenants how they will account to them for the housing that they provide. If the tenants are to have increased rights and obligations, and the right to intervene with management, they must have an adequate source of information. The Bill does not really describe how that is to happen. It seemed appropriate to put in a new clause at this stage to require it. Amendment No. 110X, which appears much later in the Bill, is about the requirements of those who accredit social housing provision, so that any accreditation scheme will require the accredited person to prepare an appropriate policy statement, stating how they will account to their tenants or occupiers of their housing. It is worth introducing these amendments to the Bill so that it is explicit rather than, perhaps, implicit—the operative word there being, of course, ““perhaps””. I beg to move.