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Housing and Regeneration Bill

That was an excellent debate. My noble friend Lord Whitty has a lot of passion and experience in this field. We have listened to him carefully regarding the instances he cited. I also listened carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, who described the wider context and implications. He gave a useful account of what is frail in the system. That is why we support the intention behind my noble friend's amendments, because we can do better than we have done. I do not feel that his prescription is the right one—and I think that the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, may have been hinting at that—but I have come up with an alternative, which I hope noble Lords will accept. The amendment would impose on councils an overly prescriptive procedure. They would be compelled to follow it, regardless of the nature of the proposal and, indeed, regardless of whether a council wanted to pass a few management responsibilities for, say, 25 or so homes to a group of tenants or to pass ownership of an estate of 500 or more homes to an RSL. The code of practice has a very different effect, whether one is talking about a change of management or a change of landlord, and it is worth unpacking that a little. Councils seek to pass management responsibilities to other bodies where they believe that doing so will provide better value for money and a better service to their tenants. Sometimes management responsibilities are passed on to tenants because that is what they have asked for. Under a change of management, however, homes remain in council ownership and tenants remain council tenants. Tenancies do not change and tenants are less affected than under a change of landlord. That is right, and we encourage councils to keep their tenants fully informed where they propose a change of management and actively to seek their views. Equally, it is right that councils are free to manage this process as they think most appropriate, given the homes in question. It is obviously wrong to force a process on them. However, a change of landlord is significantly different. The terms of people's tenancies do change and therefore it is right that they are involved to a far greater degree. For that reason, we introduced Clause 293. However, I do not believe that in addition to a statutory ballot, which is the burden of Clause 293, a statutory code of practice is necessary, not least because much of what is proposed in the amendments is already part of the process and we encourage it through the existing guidance. The guidance that we issue to councils on stock transfers is very clear about how tenants should be consulted. I am not convinced that councils are neglecting to follow it but I am concerned about the sort of experiences that my noble friend has relayed. I am concerned that he and others have the impression that some councils do not follow the guidance, and we need to address that. Equally, we need a transparent, fair, open, robust and flexible process. I very much take on board what the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, said about the need for flexibility and local character. I hope that my noble friend and others will draw some comfort from the fact that we intend to table an amendment to this clause that would provide powers to the Secretary of State to issue statutory guidance on stock transfers. I hope that that will meet noble Lords' concerns in a more focused way. It is not our intention to make the current guidance statutory. It is more than 250 pages long and much of it relates to best practice. It is this guidance that the Homes and Communities Agency will in future be responsible for producing. To complement the work of the agency, we aim to consult on short, statutory guidance that focuses on the key issues that my noble friend and the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, highlighted, including what might be an adequate period of notice before a ballot and some prescription regarding the offer document put to tenants, and so on. I hope that that will satisfy my noble friend and I now turn to the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Mawson. I am very grateful for his insight and he was extremely eloquent in describing the relationship between the ballot and the wider form of democracy that he would advocate. However, I cannot accept the amendment because there is a larger issue at stake here. The amendment seeks to remove the requirement to hold a ballot from authorities that have signalled their intent to seek consent to transfer in the manifesto upon which they were elected. I also have a problem there with fairness. How would we know that any of the tenants in question had voted for the party in power? How could it be fair that people who did not live in the homes in question could decide the fate of those who did? I would have no objection—indeed, I would welcome it—if political parties made clear in their manifestos what they intended to do if elected, including how they would manage their housing, but essentially that should be the start of the process, not the process itself. Tenants must have the final say, and this clause as it stands provides that. The amendment also seeks to exclude local authorities that can demonstrate by means other than a ballot the opinion of their tenants. All local authorities seeking to transfer stock currently carry out voluntary ballots because they recognise it is the clearest way of both demonstrating tenants' opinion and ensuring that all tenants are involved. We concur with that and that is why we are ensuring such protection for tenants is enshrined in law. It is hard to imagine what other process could achieve the same result. It cannot be right that tenants of one authority are invited to take part in a properly conducted ballot, the result of which would be clear and unambiguous, while their neighbours across the border are subject to a different process. I hope that what we have come forward with addresses the concerns and is acceptable. It will meet the critical criteria of fairness and robustness. It is also possible to craft it in such a way that it is flexible enough for local authorities to use it to their own benefit and to the benefit of their tenants.