Housing Bill changes to mean more intervention powers

Amendments made to the bill in its passage through parliament will allow the corporation to take supervisory action against registered social landlords that do not follow its guidance on how they manage themselves.

At present, the corporation can only issue statutory guidance on how RSLs manage their stock.

The amendments – contained in a new schedule 8 – were tabled on 24 February at the final sitting of the committee set up to scrutinise the bill before it goes to report stage in the Commons.

If the amendments become law – as seems likely – the corporation will be able to give associations statutory guidance on governance, general management and establishing financial viability.

RSLs that ignore the guidance will risk being placed under corporation supervision.

Catherine Hand, a partner at solicitor Jenkins & Hand, said: "In theory, the corporation could issue guidance that there should be no more than 11 people on a housing association board.

"An RSL that wanted to have a 15-member board could ignore the guidance, but would be risking corporation intervention."

Other changes to the bill give the corporation more freedom to fund one-off developments.

Under the new schedule, it will be able to make exceptions to its funding procedure to suit a particular scheme.

"It could allow the corporation to assess the needs of a development and make special arrangements around, for example, when funding was made available," said Hand.

The Housing Bill was due to reach report stage – the last stage before it gets its third and final reading in the House of Commons – in March. This has now been pushed back to May, raising fears that the bill may not make it onto the statute books this year.

However, an ODPM spokesman confirmed that the department still expected the bill to receive royal assent in 2004.