Deregulation package to take effect in April

Measures in the Housing and Planning Act, passed this year, clear the way for deregulation aimed at reversing the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) decision to reclassify associations as public sector for national accounts purposes.

These measures have now been given a commencement date of 6 April this year. They will remove the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) power of consent over disposals, restructures and mergers.  

The disposals proceeds fund, which gives the HCA power to direct the use of cash resulting from the sale of social housing assets, will also be axed.

In their place, a notifications regime will come into effect obliging housing associations to keep the regulator informed of these actions – although it will retain no power to stop them.

It will also retain powers to require newly merged organisations to re-register, although this is expected to be light touch. Further details will be published in the New Year.

It is understood that following a merger, the HCA would prioritise a merged housing association for an ‘in-depth assessment’ (IDA), although this may take place six to 12 months after the merger to allow time for the new structure to bed in.

The regulator’s powers to appoint board members, which it has used extremely infrequently, will only be available in instances of “breach of legal requirements”, as opposed to “mismanagement”.

Jim Bennett, assistant director of regulation strategy, said: “We carried out an informal consultation on the proposals with stakeholders over the summer.

“Lenders in particular took assurance from what we said around how we are going to use the notifications regime, and the fact that we will be able to carry out significant scrutiny following a merger.”