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Housing Corporation (Delegation) etc. Bill

As other Members have pointed out, this is a very brief little Bill, which consists of a few lines. I think that the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) pointed out that there were 22; I have not counted them. Given that it is only a few simple lines, one might think, ““Why do we need it?”” We have run round the houses slightly in relation to some of the reasons why people might think that we need the Bill. In essence, the Bill is retrospective. We have been told that it will sort out a glitch or oversight in a system that has introduced doubt, confusion and perhaps even sclerosis and could introduce mayhem if things start to go dreadfully wrong. The system is already complex, as my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) has pointed out. It was supposed to be designed to ease the smooth running of our housing associations via the Housing Corporation. It is supposed to help them to discharge their duties effectively. Housing associations serve our local communities but are not without their own problems, and the uncertainty that is hanging over them is not helping. Indeed, as my hon. Friends have said, some local housing associations have heavy burdens placed on them, and obligations are placed on them by the Housing Corporation itself. The glitch or oversight in the earlier legislation—it was discovered in January 2006—is now promising mayhem or sclerosis, depending on how we look at it. Some hon. Members may feel that those words are somewhat wild in respect of a little 22-line Bill, but they should stick with what I am saying, because I should like to give a brief overview of how things stand. We have been told that since the passing of the Housing Associations Act 1985, the Housing Corporation possibly has been operating by delegating its statutory duties below board level but without the express power to do so. That has caused some worry, and as the House is aware, that gap in the corporation’s constitutional powers has come to light only recently. So we have had to undertake a finger-in-the-dike exercise, as referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone), who is no longer in his seat, to stem the flow of those delegated decisions that have been taken without express permission. As has been said, the result of that exercise is numerous board meetings that were possibly not happening before. As the Minister, who is enjoying my speech, is probably well aware, under the 1985 Act, everything that the Housing Corporation wishes to do—from the allocation of large funding streams to registered social landlords, to the disposal of land under section 9 of the Housing Act 1996, which has been mentioned as one of the more contentious issues, or even possibly the switch to fair trade coffee, of which we are all in favour—would in theory require a board meeting. Those decisions are now delegated without express permission, and clause 1(2) seeks to get rid of that anomaly. As I have said, fingers are rapidly being put into the dike, and I ask hon. Members to run with that thought a little and imagine any other business in which myriad decisions must be made at board level that would be made routinely by other delegated authorities, and we are being asked to stop the nonsense that seems to have occurred as a result. Many Members would agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough, who said that we should not feel too sorry for those hard-pressed board members and that theirs is a rather easy lot for not bad remuneration. However, if they are asked back too regularly, we can even imagine en suite and dining facilities being needed in the boardroom to stop them running around the country in a sort of haphazard manner trying to ensure that they can attend their day jobs, as well as attending board meetings. Having spoken to them today, I understand that they attend two meetings a week, not the one meeting that has been mentioned; but even so, we might not feel too sorry for them about the increased work load that results from that glitch. I will not try to labour the point too much to try to elicit too much support for those hard-pressed board members, but the reality is that that to-ing and fro-ing and confusion will inevitably have a knock-on effect on the efficient working of local housing associations, which await the decisions and are wondering whether they have been made correctly. Those are housing associations such as the one in my constituency, the Hightown Praetorian, which is a regional housing association that provides a wide range of housing and support services for families and single people, including those with special needs. Despite difficult market pressures, the association is trying to deliver the social rented housing that other members have referred to in an area where land prices are prohibitively high. As the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey), who serves on the Select Committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, knows, that is very difficult to deliver, but it is what we are getting from our housing associations.