Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 215DC: 215DC: Clause 123, page 78, line 26, after ““authorities”” insert ““or registered social landlords”” The noble Baroness said: There are six amendments in the group, Amendments Nos. 215DC, 215DD, 216G, 217ZA, 217ZB and 217ZC. The amendments have the support of London Councils and are put forward on its behalf. London Councils is the body which represents all 33 London authorities. The Bill currently allows local authorities the power to require information from partner authorities. We have just been discussing that. Those partner authorities have a duty to respond to reports by the overview and scrutiny committees. Registered social landlords deliver public services and receive considerable funding from central Government in the form of capital subsidy to build new homes and revenue subsidy for rental charges through the housing benefit subsidy system. Hence overview and scrutiny committees should have the power to require information from RSLs operating in their local authority area, who should be required to respond to reports by the overview and scrutiny committees. In the recent consultation paper issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government, Delivering Housing and Regeneration: Communities England and the future of social housing regulation, the Government stated that they propose to take forward the recommendation of the Cave review that all social housing providers, "““should have a statutory duty to engage constructively with the place-shaping role of local authorities””." My amendments meet the Government’s commitment to ensure that registered social landlords are engaging with the local authorities and they seek to put this on a statutory footing. Many elected members of the 33 London councils have expressed their concern about RSL management. Lack of responsibility is particularly evident in areas where registered social landlords have a small number of properties in a given area. London Councils has identified that of the 390 registered social landlords operating in London, 85 per cent operate schemes of 50 or fewer units within certain boroughs. That has led to inconsistency of service provision and management standards across social housing and left local authorities and tenants without appropriate influence over registered social landlords and a lack of accountability to their residents. There is sometimes—not generally, but sometimes—a lack of transparency in the performance of registered social landlords locally. They are not required to disaggregate performance information locally, which makes it much more difficult to engage them in delivering local objectives. The Bill provides an important opportunity to ensure that social housing providers are brought in to work with local authorities and to be recognised as bodies which should be considered. I moved an amendment—was it yesterday or was it a few days ago?—raising that as an issue. I should be grateful if the Government would support the positive move proposed in the amendments. I beg to move.