Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Housing and Regeneration Bill
9:45 am
Derek Joseph: I think that the inspection and regulation regime at the moment is one of the key drivers that have pushed housing associations into amalgamation. It is rather a defensive strategy for a lot of smaller and medium-sized housing associations to go into those groups. I think that there has been a lack of strategy about how the regulator and, in a sense, how the Housing Corporation as the promoter have wanted to see the industry of housing associations and the structure of that industry. There has been pressure from the different types of regulation and also from the way that the funding of schemes has been developed; obviously, the Government wanted to push down the level of grant. There is a danger that housing associations are amalgamating for reasons that are not about the levels of service; the reasons are more about dealing with financial pressures and regulation. That is a problem.
There have been two regulating inspectors who, over the last few years, have effectively had a turf war between them. As a result, housing associations have felt very much that they are on the defensive and that they have had to deal with too much regulation. One of the consequences is that a lot of governing bodies who are voluntary or whose remuneration is very low have felt that there is too much pressure; it is like trying to run a big business with a lot of people on your back. They have said, “Well, actually, we are better off in a bigger organisation”. So I think that the reasons for those mergers are, very often, not to do with the levels of service. That is a danger for the future.