Current ONS review will not consider Right to Buy

The status review, which is expected to finish by the end of this month, will focus on changes introduced by the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the Localism Act 2011.

Reforms included in the current Housing and Planning Bill and Welfare Reform and Work Bill will not be relevant to the current review, as they are not yet in force, a spokesperson for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) told Inside Housing yesterday.

The ONS review will determine whether housing associations should be reclassified as public bodies – bringing more than £60bn of debt onto the national balance sheet.

It is undertaking an analysis of the level of government control of housing association businesses, based on European accounting rules.

Recent government reforms will be considered by the ONS for reclassification purposes once they are actually in force. It has confirmed it will analyse the impact of the Right to Buy extension only once it comes in.

The ONS also has the power to offer a private opinion to ministers on whether proposed policy would be enough to trigger a reclassification.

The ‘threat’ of reclassification, and the potential loss of independence that could flow from it, was a key reason for many housing associations to vote to adopt the Right to Buy voluntarily.

Reclassification would not in itself lead to any material change in the way housing associations operate, but it would remove a potential barrier to the government nationalising associations.

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF), had warned legislating to require housing associations to sell properties at a discount would likely tip the scales, although the ONS said the position was less clear.

Other reforms such as Pay to Stay – which require housing associations to charge higher earning tenants higher rents – and the rent cut, which forces them to reduce rents overall – could also been seen to increase government control of the sector.