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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I have two amendments in this group at the more extreme end of the matter. They delete the ineligibility of local authorities and ALMOs from registration. Regulations are second best. Sometimes it is better to have a regulation-making power than no power at all, and this may be such an occasion. However, we are all familiar with the procedures’ shortcomings, particularly in that no amendment can be made to an order. Another reason for wanting to see local authorities included from the start is that the new agency—the Tenant Services Authority, did the noble Lord say?—should start by involving local authorities and local authority tenants, who should be involved in its development right from its inception and not as an add-on. Culturally it is important to include all those with an interest right from the start; it is quite hard to change an approach after two or three years. Having said that—and having referred to the regulation-making provisions, perhaps more scathingly than I intended, as second best—I would certainly be happier if the Government could be persuaded to go down that route than I would be with no reference at all to local authorities, or rather with the only reference to them being to exclude them.