Schedule 9
Housing and Regeneration Bill
11:00 am
Iain Wright (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government; Hartlepool, Labour)
Sections 34 and 43 of the Housing Act 1985 provide powers to the Secretary of State and Welsh Ministers to grant consent to a local authority to dispose of tenanted properties. I am disappointed that the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire is not here to combat these points with me.
The schedule amends those sections to preserve certain requirements and definitions that would otherwise be lost through repeal of section 135 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. That section requires that a local authority first be accepted by the Secretary of State on an annual disposals programme before seeking her consent to dispose of 500 or more tenanted homes under section 34 or 43 of the 1985 Act. The amendments to schedule 9 are intended to remove that prerequisite.
The amendments are relatively technical and are intended to ensure the correct application of the law in England and Wales following the devolution settlement, as housing is now a matter devolved to the Welsh Ministers. They simply replace references to the Secretary of State in sections 34 and 43 of the 1985 Act with the term “appropriate national body”, which is defined as the Secretary of State in England and Welsh Ministers in Wales.