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Housing and Regeneration Bill

My Lords, I had the good sense in Committee to let the noble Lord, Lord Best, speak before me on this issue, and I am very glad that I did so again, because he put it so well. There is a need for guidance, or a regime, to enable tenants, in the most serious situation, to prompt a change of management. As the noble Lord said, this is not by any means a trivial matter. That prompts me to ask about the application of ““mismanagement””. If there is mismanagement, various mechanisms can be brought into play. Mismanagement is defined as including affairs conducted ““improperly or inappropriately””. Is the Minister able to explain how that would apply to the concerns that are being voiced? I do not want to take out the reference to ““control”” in Clause 191(2)(g), but whether or not that provision is amended in this way, again I ask how that fits with the issues. Like the noble Lord, I do not think that it is necessarily a service to tenants to enable an easy flip-flop, which I think is the term that was used last time, and that is the concern. On Amendment No. 138A, I am unclear about how these matters are linked to the standards that are being spelt out in the Bill, because they seem to come in from a different direction, or at least to allow for a different direction. The noble Lord, Lord Best, referred to the VAT issue, which is not a trivial matter either. These are really difficult issues, and we are feeling our way around them and moving forward. It is hardly for me to say this, but the noble Earl ought to bear in mind that raising matters such as this one will have led the Government to reconsider things. None of us gets an amendment labelled with our initials into a Bill, but the process is very worth while.