Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 110RA: 110RA: Clause 201, page 86, line 2, at end insert— ““( ) It shall be a requirement that an assessment contained in a report prepared under this section must be broken down into assessments of the registered provider’s performance in each local authority area in which it provides social housing.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall speak also to Amendment No. 110RB. Clauses 201 and 202 are about performance information. At least three of us here will take our minds back to only last year, when we debated performance information in the context of local authorities. Under Clause 201, the regulator can require a provider to put together certain information and specify the matters to be covered. Clause 202 refers to information that is likely to be useful. The amendments are about what would be useful. They both require the breaking-down of information by local authority area. A number of us in this Committee have spoken previously about the local authorities’ obvious democratic interest and their strategic interest in the performance of providers, who after all would be carrying out what not so very long ago was primarily a local authority function. RSLs typically report against stock holdings and performance at a national level, so they are assessed at a national level, or there is an aggregation or averaging-out of performance, which means that poor performance in specific localities is not clear. Equally, particularly good performance is not made clear. If the reporting is not specific by area, those who are immediately and directly affected do not have the information which the Bill attempts in various ways to provide. Information on RSL performance will also allow local authorities to ensure that tenants receive an equal service across the sector. It is clear that London Councils, which has asked me to put forward these amendments, is signed up to the Government’s agenda because it states that information is a, "““valuable resource for any local authority in place shaping and leading the Sustainable Communities Agenda””." As with any kind of advertising, when your own words are used back to you, you know that you have got through. Comparable information is one of the recommendations of Cave. The amendments would assist in taking that forward. I beg to move.