Housing Corporation ready for rethink on rent restructuring

The Housing Corporation would consider relaxing the controversial rules on rent restructuring if it would mean tenants got better homes, sooner.

In an interview with Housing Today, corporation chair Peter Dixon said the quango was willing to be flexible about the process, which caps the amount of rent associations are allowed to charge.

It aims to bring all social rents in line by 2012, but some registered social landlords have long argued that they should be able to bend the rules. They want to use the extra rental income to pay for upgrading homes to meet the decent homes standard by 2010.

Dixon said: "So far, the evidence I've seen is that associations, generally, are going to meet decent homes without any need for rent restructuring and without any need for grant.

"I would be more attracted by an association coming to us and saying 'if we can relax some of the rent restructuring arrangements slightly then we can use it to, say, meet the decent homes standard two or three years early'."

Dixon's concession comes after the Peabody Trust and Home Group called for the rules on rent restructuring to be relaxed.

Housing associations are going to meet decent homes without any need for grant

Peter Dixon, chair, Housing Corporation

Both RSLs want to raise rents more quickly to help fund their efforts to meet the decent homes target (HT 9 January, page 8).

Home Group chief executive Malcolm Levi said: "Additional rental income to bring forward the date of achieving the decent homes target would be attractive."

Dixon also said that in future, the corporation's regulatory function would focus more on continuous improvement. If an RSL is not raising its game on a regular basis, it could have to consider a merger, he said.

Dixon admitted last week at the National Housing Federation's chief executives' conference that the corporation would need more operational funding as part of its settlement from July's comprehensive spending review.

He said: "We do not have enough money to do all of the things we want to do. There are particular concerns around the resources that are available for IT. We've got a long way to go there and we need to invest much more in this.