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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I have one amendment in this group, Amendment No. 110FA, which is to add to Clause 199 on inspection a requirement that the persons used to carry out the inspection include tenants of social housing. I seem to recall that the Minister said previously that this was intended, but I could not pin that down. She is nodding again, but as the National Consumer Council and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service in particular have asked for something along these lines, perhaps I should say a couple of words. Other regulators use service users to assist as lay inspectors, but there is no systematic arrangement; it is left to the regulator. The Chartered Institute of Housing has done some work on this issue and has ideas about an approach whereby tenant scrutiny can contribute to the regulator’s work and, indeed, to national benchmarking. I understand that the Public Administration Select Committee in the Commons has rightly supported user-led work of this kind. It is pretty obvious that tenants will bring a particular perspective and have opportunities to talk to other tenants and managers, and will assist in evaluating what is going on. I was glad to see the Minister nodding. No doubt she will say something in a minute. I should also say a word about the raft of amendments to which the Minister has spoken. Others may want to say more. I am aware that there is concern about the use of the Audit Commission on the basis that it is a monopoly service. I would find it a little difficult to argue that point, given that local authorities have to cope with this. There is, however, concern about fees. Although the Audit Commission may well provide value for money, and I am not arguing about the merits of what it does, it is not tested on fees that it charges because there is no competition; there is no tender process. That has struck me from time to time over the years as something that the local government has just shrugged its shoulders about and taken on board without much protest. Sometimes, possibly, we should say, ““Hang on a moment. We’d like the Audit Commission to be involved but it could be a very expensive situation for us””. I simply wanted to put that point into the debate.