Registered Social Landlords (Hansard, 15 February 1999)

§ Ms Armstrong

We wish to ensure that Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) can fully engage in the government's wider social regeneration agenda. My Department is therefore consulting interested bodies on a draft of an Order which would extend the permissible additional purposes or objects of RSLs in England and Wales.

The Order's broad purpose is to enable an RSL to provide services and amenities to people who are not resident in the RSL's property, so long as some of its own tenants benefit; and in certain circumstances to engage in regeneration activities such as the New Deal for Communities.

Section 2 of the Housing Act 1996 specifies the bodies that are eligible for registration as non charitable social landlords. For two categories of body (a society registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 and a company registered under the Companies Act 1985) the section sets out conditions that must be satisfied for registration. In addition to the core purposes or objects, there are permissible additional purposes or objects.

The draft Order proposes further permissible additional purposes or objects that such a body may have, namely: carrying out certain activities, including the provision of land, amenities or services, for persons who are not residents of the body, where any such activity is also being carried out for the body's own residents; where the body is managing certain accommodation, providing amenities or services for residents both of that accommodation and of other accommodation; where persons are benefiting from activities already referred to in or specified under Section 2, carrying out regeneration activities for the benefit of those persons, or for the benefit both of those persons and others.

The proposed Order would substantially increase the range of activities that certain RSLs may undertake. RSLs will need to consider carefully the appropriate sources of funding for activities outside conventional housing management and the extent to which these activities could cause risks. Activities that support an RSL's core business 449W by helping to maintain sustainable communities may help lower costs and exposure to risk. But certain types of diversification may increase the sector's risk exposure and this raises difficult regulatory issues. To address this concern the Housing Corporation is today issuing a discussion paper on how it might develop its regulatory framework.