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Housing Corporation (Delegation) etc. Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the need for social housing but also for shared equity homes, which many people now want in order to make the first step on the housing ladder. The corporation allocates its funding according to the principles set out by the regional housing board, so I certainly urge him to make his concerns known to the board if he feels that distribution in his area is not appropriate. The Housing Corporation also works with bids that come in so he may want to talk to the newly established housing associations in his area about putting in bids for future allocations of social housing and affordable housing. We have made it clear that we think that we need to increase the provision of social housing and shared equity homes across the country, and we are funding a 50 per cent. increase over the next few years. We also think that that needs to be a priority for the spending review, so I assure the hon. Gentleman that we are committed to increasing social housing and affordable housing across the country, and I urge him to talk to his local agencies about ensuring that there is an appropriate allocation for his area. The decisions that the Housing Corporation takes around regulation and funding allocations have huge implications for housing associations, for lenders and most importantly of all for the tenants who live in housing association homes. The corporation has an impact on the lives of several million people, many of whom are among the most vulnerable in the country. Given these important roles in regulation and allocation of public funds, it is critical that they are able to operate without any legal uncertainty around the decisions that they take. The Bill has two clauses. Clause 1(1) gives the corporation an express power going forward to delegate the exercise of its functions to individual members of its board, its committees, sub-committees and employees. At the time of the Housing Corporation’s creation it was common for public bodies and other NDPBs not to be given an explicit power of delegation, primarily because such bodies took fewer statutory decisions and it was plausible at that time for all these decisions to be carried out by the board. Since then, the vast majority of those bodies have become defunct or their founding legislation has been modernised and they have been given an explicit power of delegation. Similar non-departmental public bodies set up in more recent years that operate with public funding or with regulatory roles have express powers so that the board can delegate their statutory functions appropriately. English Heritage, which was set up in the 1980s, English Partnerships, the Audit Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, and the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection all have express powers to delegate.