Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s amendment. We should put these issues on the record. An explanation of Amendment No. 108ZBB would be helpful. During a moratorium, the registered provider’s land may be disposed of only with the regulator’s prior consent. The amendment would waive that, so the regulator would be obliged to consent in those circumstances. The amendment would exclude from that a disposal that had been agreed to but not completed when the moratorium came into effect. I assume that the noble Baroness intends to protect purchasers who may otherwise find that their transaction is delayed. However, this would remove an important protection. A provider who is on the verge of a moratorium is likely to be in the most serious of financial difficulties. In the final days and weeks before the moratorium is triggered, disposals may be agreed to that are not in the best long-term interests of the provider and its tenants. The moratorium provides an important breathing space at a very difficult time, and it is important that the regulator is not obliged to honour agreements to make disposals that are not in everyone’s best interests—hence that arrangement. I think the noble Baroness’s sharp question was: when does the regulator’s disposal consent become legally binding? I understand that that happens when the regulator formally issues his consent if the consent is required because of a moratorium. The important point is that the consent can also be given before the moratorium starts or at any point during it. These arrangements do not prevent the regulator from consenting to a sensible and legitimate disposal. That consent may be given even before the moratorium has been triggered. Certain routine disposals are already exempted from this provision by virtue of Clause 149, including the most common forms of residential tenancies and sales under the right to buy and the right to acquire. We need to balance the interests of tenants, providers, creditors and so on. That is a very rare circumstance, which arose only once in the history of the Housing Corporation; so taking account of all that, the risks introduced by this amendment would be greater than the benefits. Amendment No. 108ZBC concerns the proposals made by the regulator for the future of the provider and its homes. Clause 151 requires the regulator, when making proposals, to have regard to the interests of the provider’s creditors as a whole, and to avoid, as far as is reasonably practicable, worsening the position of unsecured creditors. These provisions specifically highlight the interests of unsecured creditors who might otherwise be overlooked. The regulator has a fundamental objective to protect the interests of tenants. As these proposals have effect only if agreed by secured creditors, the interests of secured creditors will always be considered. Without this provision, however, the interests of unsecured creditors might not be taken into account. The noble Baroness has addressed the requirement to have regard to the interests of the tenants of the registered provider. She has read Clauses 88 and 98 correctly, and they are covered by that. They are also covered by the regulator’s objectives, which also require it to ensure that tenants have an appropriate degree of protection. The whole purpose of the proposals set out at the beginning of the clause is to ensure that the property will be properly managed by a registered provider. That overriding purpose seeks to protect tenants by ensuring that their homes stay in the hands of a well managed registered provider. On Amendment No. 108ZBD and the powers to assist a registered provider, the noble Baroness is quite right. Among other things, Clause 157 allows the regulator to lend staff to the manager of a registered provider during a moratorium. The amendment replaces this with, "““make staff available to the manager””," and is about the employment status. However, the provision does not affect the employment status of any staff of the regulator. They would continue to be employed by the regulator, and any obligation on them to carry out this work would be no more or less than their obligation to move to alterative duties within the regulator’s office.