Housing bill introduced to Parliament

The Housing (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill responds to last year’s decision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) should be classified as public bodies in the national accounts, having previously been classified as private bodies.

The Housing (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill aims to do the following:

Sections 1 and 2 reduce the Regulator’s powers to appoint a manager to a social landlord to manage the landlord’s housing activities and to appoint a manager to a RSL to manage its financial or other affairs and reduce the Regulator’s general powers to remove, suspend or appoint officers of RSLs.

Sections 3 and 4 remove the Regulator’s power to give or withhold consent to the disposal of land by a RSL. In doing so, the sections retain the right of a RSL’s tenants to continue to be consulted about disposals that would affect them, and to approve – either in writing or through a ballot – any disposal that would result in a change of landlord for them.

Sections 5 to 7 remove the Regulator’s powers to give or withhold consent to changes to a RSL’s constitution, and to the restructuring, winding-up and dissolution of a RSL. In doing so, the sections retain the rights of a RSL’s tenants to approve – either in writing or through a ballot – certain restructurings that result in a change of landlord for the tenants or that involve the RSL becoming a subsidiary of another body.

Section 8 gives ministers the power to make further amendments to the powers of the Regulator should such changes be necessary to enable the ONS classify RSLs to the private sector.

Section 9 gives ministers the power to make regulations that will ensure that local authority influence over a RSL – e.g. by nominating members to a governing body – is not so great that it counts as public sector control.