The Housing Corporation called for a fully independent stand-alone housing regulator, with responsibility for housing associations, local authority housing provision, ALMOs and private sector social landlords.
Responding to the Government's consultation on the future of housing regulation, which followed the review by Professor Cave, the Corporation called for a reformed regulatory system to deliver:
Launching the proposals, Housing Corporation Chairman Peter Dixon said:
"The Housing Corporation fully supports Martin Cave's recommendations.
"Existing regulatory arrangements for housing associations have delivered a stable sector, encouraged massive private investment at low cost and - most importantly - have successfully protected tenants.
"But social housing provision will increasingly be delivered by a mixed economy of providers - local authorities, voluntary not-for-profit housing associations and private sector providers.
"These landlords will be responsible for over 4 million social homes in England - and their tenants deserve a regulator who puts their interests first and foremost. That's why the Corporation is clear that the new regulator needs to be truly independent and 100% focused on social housing. It is critically important that it should not be open to criticism as a result of competing objectives, conflicts of interest or a confused mandate.
"Success will be measured by the new regulator's ability to encourage new entrants into the market, provide stability and assurance to the lending community and champion tenants' rights."
Key aspects of the Housing Corporation's proposals include:
The Housing Corporation response also emphasised the need to maintain the capacity and credibility of current regulatory arrangements during the transition to the new regulator, to ensure lender confidence and avoid instability that might impact on the availability of low-cost finance to support the recently launched National Affordable Housing Programme.
The Corporation response also shows how a decision by ministers in favour of a wholly independent stand-alone regulator could be introduced quickly, with first steps towards the new regime introduced ahead of legislation using the Housing Corporation's existing regulatory powers. This would ensure a smooth transitional process to the new independent regulator and minimize risks to housing delivery.
Entries to the Housing Corporation's Gold Award for Excellence 2008 were invited.
Launched in June 2005, the Gold Award competition is open to housing associations able to demonstrate outstanding performance in key areas of business. The award aims to identify excellence and raise operational standards for the benefit of residents across the sector.
A record number of housing associations submitted bids to take part last year - 40% up on the first year of the competition. Winners of the 2007 competition received their awards at a ceremony in London in May and are currently embarking on a knowledge-sharing programme.
Now in its third year, the competition for housing associations has three new themes:
Building Cohesive Communities
Entrants to this theme must be able to demonstrate creative and effective plans and policies for bringing together people of different backgrounds, beliefs, interests and cultures in ways that genuinely contribute to the strengthening of communities.
Tackling Worklessness
Entrants will be contributing to the delivery of the national PSA floor target for worklessness and contributing to meeting Local Area Agreement targets for economic development and enterprise. Partnership working with other bodies will feature strongly and there will be clear and measurable evidence of positive outcomes over time.
Delivering Joined-up Development
Entrants to this theme will demonstrate effective and close working relationships with a range of public and statutory partners, which collectively improve both the built and social environment for local communities. Actively linking programmes of development to the provision of services such as education, transport and healthcare - the eventual winners will have done most to ensure their developments are fully integrated with the wider and longer term vision for cohesive and productive neighbourhoods.
Short-listed associations for this round of the award will showcase their projects to a Gold delegation of judges and experts during March and April 2008. Up to three winning entries in each theme will be selected to receive an award. Each winning association will receive a cash boost of £50,000 to help fund their involvement in a nine-month programme of knowledge sharing.
The closing date for entries is Friday 30 November 2007.
Two new free publications were released, offering guidance on the key industry issues for improving the environmental performance of existing homes and for developing a comprehensive sustainability strategy.
A Guide to Developing a Sustainability Strategy and Action Plan provides advice and examples of how to develop a sustainability strategy that covers an entire organisation's remit.
This guide also acts as an additional resource for organisations wishing to use EcoHomes XB, which includes the development of environmental, energy and maintenance policies as a core part of its Management section.
Both guides provide detailed case studies. They were developed by Sustainable Homes Ltd, which specialises in environmentally friendly housing, and were commissioned by the Housing Corporation as part of its Innovation and Good Practice Programme.
To obtain copies of the guides, contact Sustainable Homes Ltd on 020 8973 0429.
Local authority inspection reports issued by the Audit Commission during September included the following:
Registered social landlord inspection reports issued by the Audit Commission during September included the following:
The first report by Communities Scotland on Glasgow Housing Association gave it a fair or 'C' grade for its performance as a landlord.
The report found weaknesses in the way the Association managed recently procured investment contracts and identified poor and worsening rent collection.
However, inspectors did find the landlord had met or was meeting most of the promises it made to tenants when 80,000 homes were transferred to the housing association from Glasgow Council in 2003.
The report also noted that no stock had yet transferred to local housing organisations, as originally planned, and that there were 'financial barriers to progress'. The report notes that the Association has tried to make second stage transfer happen within its financial limits and the conditions set at the time of the transfer.
Three cases where vulnerable people suffered considerably because of councils' failures in handling their homelessness applications are among the housing-related examples selected for the Local Government Ombudsmen's eleventh annual Digest of Cases.
Highlighting cases of particular interest in 2006/07, the new Digest aims to maximise the benefit of the Ombudsmen's work by sharing it with all local authorities to help improve public services.
Last year, complaints to the Ombudsmen about antisocial behaviour rose 13.5% (from 675 to 766), those about housing rose slightly (from 3,908 to 3,912) and those about Benefits fell by 11.9% (from 1,272 to 1,121).
Also featured among the Ombudsmen's housing-related selections are:
The Ombudsmen decided 18,192 complaints in the year (all categories), and complainants obtained redress in 29% of cases (excluding premature complaints and those outside the Ombudsmen's jurisdiction).
