ELIGIBILITY FOR REGISTRATION (Hansard, 29 April 1996)

§ Mr. Curry
I beg to move amendment No. 60, in page 2, line 1, leave out 'does not trade for profit' and insert 'is non-profit-making'.

§ Madam Deputy Speaker
With this, it will be convenient to discuss also Government amendments Nos. 61 and 62.

§ Mr. Curry
We now embark on a marathon of Government amendments that fulfil commitments made in Committee. I shall give the basic bones of what we propose.
Amendments Nos. 60 and 62 provide a clear definition of non-profit-making bodies for the purposes of eligibility for registration with the corporation. Amendment No. 61 is a minor drafting change.
Amendment No. 62 re-enacts the provisions in the Housing Associations Act 1985, which defines a body as non profit-making if it does not trade for profit, or its constitution or rules prohibit the issue of capital with interest or dividend exceeding the rate prescribed by the Treasury. The amendment was tabled to provide cover for any existing registered association that may have the power to pay interest or dividend at the rate prescribed by the Treasury. I am sure that the amendments will find favour with the House.

§ Mr. Raynsford
As the Minister said, the amendment responds to suggestions proposed in Committee. It confirms that organisations providing social housing should be non profit-making organisations.
We welcome the amendment and think it is appropriate. We are pleased that the Government have not proceeded with the ill-considered plans contained in their White Paper published last summer, allowing profit-making organisations to compete with housing associations and other social landlords for social housing grant—as we must come to know what was previously known as housing association grant. I shall not risk your wrath, Madam Deputy Speaker, by venturing my thoughts on those titles.
812 The key issue is that social housing should be provided by non-profit-making organisations. We have a wealth of good housing associations and other social landlords in this country, and others are likely to be created in future—hopefully, some of them will have active tenant involvement. There is no need to jumble up their role with that of the perfectly legitimate, but different, role of profit-making organisations, which should rightly provide what is known as privately rented housing.
We want to see more private investment in good-quality, private rented housing. It is not appropriate to confuse that with the provision of social housing, which should be undertaken by organisations that are clearly non-profit-making. The amendments make that clear—we strongly support them and trust that they are confirmation that the Government have finally abandoned their ill-conceived plans to extend social housing grant to profit-making bodies.

§ Mr. Curry
I beg to move amendment No. 63, in page 2, line 38, leave out from 'after' to end of line 40 and insert 'a disposal by the landlord to the tenants by way of sale or lease or on shared ownership terms;'.

§ Madam Deputy Speaker
With this, it will be convenient to discuss also Government amendment No. 64.

§ Mr. Curry
The amendments bring the permissible purposes of registered social landlords—a concept with which we became familiar in Committee—into line with the right-to-acquire provisions. They ensure that permissible purposes—which sound more exciting than they are—are consistent with the provisions elsewhere in the Bill.
We made it clear in Committee that we do not want to make significant further changes to the permissible purposes of registered social landlords. We would, however, be prepared to listen to well-defined and well-justified extensions that could be included in subsequent secondary legislation. We discussed what would happen if there were a launderette in a block of flats, and I said that we would take a sensible and pragmatic view on the subject. The amendment fulfils our commitment to do so.

§ Mr. Raynsford
We accept the spirit in which the Minister moved the amendment. We highlighted specific issues, such as the ability of registered social landlords to carry out ancillary operations that might be described as commercial—for example, a launderette or a charity shop. In his letter to me on the subject, the Minister said that 813 he was content that those points were covered by the legislation. On that understanding, I am happy to support the amendments.