Written evidence to be reported to the House
Housing and Regeneration Bill
12:00 pm
Margaret Moran (Luton South, Labour)
Back when I was involved it was RSLs. Under the Bill, housing associations can lower the amount of public subsidy that they must invest in affordable social housing by cross-subsidising through sales at market rates. I have asked some parliamentary questions about that, which you might be aware of. Do you think that there is sufficient regulation? In other words, are some registered social landlords simply selling off at open market rates to bolster their reserves, rather than to create more affordable housing? Secondly, in the context of the Bill, will the separation of the Homes and Communities Agency and Oftenant—we should think of a better word for that—prevent RSLs that are genuinely using the mechanism to create more affordable social housing from doing so? I stress the word “genuinely”.