9. Debate: The General Principles of the Regulation of Registered Social Landlords (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:00 pm on 13 February 2018.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 6:00, 13 February 2018

Through the judgments and the standards that our registered social landlords have to adhere to in Wales, they're very clear on their purpose in terms of maintaining a strong focus on provision of social housing for the people who need it most—quality social housing. Also, through our framework of regulation, we have the opportunity to explore to what extent RSLs are investing their efforts and their resources in business that we would consider not to be core business. Those would be discussions that we would be having at a very early stage with RSLs, should they come to a level that was of concern to us.

I would also say that David Melding is quite right in the sense that the discussions that we've also had with the Office for National Statistics in terms of them not being prepared to enter into a running commentary kind of dialogue with us in terms of the ideas and concerns and so on that have been brought forward—. However, that doesn't include that issue of the clarity on the role, or the status, I should say, of local authority councillors on the board, which we are still seeking to come to some clarity on with the ONS, and, as soon as we have that clarity, we will be sharing it with the committees.

I do want to turn to the issue of tenants, and tenants' rights and tenants' engagement and voice, because this is something that has clearly been of concern to committee members, both in the debate today and to others throughout the passage of the Bill to this point. I think it's worth reflecting on the evidence given during the scrutiny process by the chair of Community Housing Cymru, who said,

'I think the real damage to tenants, to be quite honest, would be if we don't get this Bill through to enable us to be reclassified', and I know that CHC today has e-mailed all Assembly Members with an in-depth briefing, noting the concerns that the committee does have in relation to the role of tenants in certain constitutional changes and agreeing that tenants have a vital role to play in scrutinising the landlords. As independent businesses, housing associations have a variety of ways in which they involve tenants in scrutiny and governance processes, they tell us, and are continually working to improve in this area. But CHC today have been really clear that they believe that improvements in this area do not require amendments to the legislation, and can be achieved through the co-development of statutory guidance between Welsh Government, the housing association sector and tenant bodies that ensures tenants are included in decisions or constitutional changes. That's very much the way in which I would—[Interruption.]

I'm not sure who was standing first. I think it was Mark first.