Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2008

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 15 October be approved. The noble Baroness said: My Lords, noble Lords will remember the many excellent debates we had during the passage of the Housing and Regeneration Bill, which was much improved by the contributions of Members of this House. Today we are considering the draft of an order, the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2008, which will make a number of amendments to legislation which are necessary once certain provisions of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 are commenced. Before going into the substance of this technical order, I should perhaps explain how it fits as part of a wider package of orders coming forward. In addition to this affirmative order, there are also two orders subject to the negative resolution procedure before the House. The first, the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Provisions) (No. 2) Order 2008, is similar in nature to this one save that it amends secondary legislation. The second, the Transfer of Housing Corporation Functions (Modifications and Transitional Provisions) Order 2008, transfers the existing functions of the Housing Corporation to the HCA and the TSA. All of these orders are linked in timing to the commencement of Section 5 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. There is nothing special about Section 5, other than that it is the first section that we have not yet commenced. All being well, this will all come into effect on 1 December 2008. It was a great pleasure to take the Housing and Regeneration Bill through the House because of the tremendous amount of cross-party support for the main purposes of the Act—the creation of the Homes and Communities Agency, bringing together investment and delivery, and the creation of a new regulator of social housing in line with the recommendations of the Cave report, Every Tenant Matters—and the many interesting and constructive debates we had on issues around these central principles. Noble Lords may be aware that these new bodies have been created, albeit in very limited form for now so that they can, for example, appoint board members. This order will come into force when the main powers and functions are turned on by or transferred from the existing bodies—the Commission for the New Towns, the Urban Regeneration Agency and the Housing Corporation—to the new ones. The purpose of the majority of the amendments in this order is, quite simply, to update references to predecessor bodies and other references in existing Acts to ensure that these reflect the position once the HCA has been created and the predecessor bodies abolished. There is nothing pertinent to the regulator in this order. Where taxation matters are concerned, the intent is to leave the current position substantially unaltered. So the effect of these amendments, other than in the rewording of existing Acts, is extremely limited. They do not contain substantive policy issues; they are simply technical in nature. They effectively change the name of the relevant organisation to the HCA in legislation and they therefore pass the existing powers and functions from the URA, the CNT or the Housing Corporation to the HCA. The amendments are aimed, quite simply, at maintaining the status quo. I suspect that noble Lords—especially those who were here at midnight last night—would not thank me for going into the detail of every individual amendment and so, on balance, I will not do so unless I am bound to under challenge from noble Lords. I have a line-by-line explanation but I shall forego that. However, it provides an opportunity to briefly update the House on what has happened since the Bill left here, received Royal Assent and became an Act. I say again how much the Act was improved by the contributions of this House, for which I was very grateful. Following on from that, work has continued apace to ensure that the HCA and the TSA can be up and running on 1 December 2008, four months ahead of the date originally planned. This work has included developing the necessary secondary legislation: the first commencement order, which allowed, among other things, the HCA and TSA to appoint board members, was laid in September; this affirmative order and the two negative orders that Parliament is currently considering; and a second commencement order giving the HCA the bulk of its powers and responsibilities is currently being prepared and is expected to be laid before the end of this month in time for 1 December. The HCA and TSA chairs, boards and senior management are in place. The HCA has conducted, and will continue to conduct, a series of regional stakeholder events setting out how the HCA will work and deliver. I am very impressed by the way in which Sir Bob Kerslake has involved the entire staff of the HCA in the formulation of the new body. It has been a very open and energetic process and is thoroughly to be commended. The department’s sponsorship arrangements are being finalised and staff are being appointed. The various necessary pieces of corporate documentation for both agencies are either agreed or in the final stages of being agreed. The continuity of transferring CLG programmes has been safeguarded by 42 staff agreeing to transfer on secondment to the HCA, and those secondments vary in length between a few months and three years. HR and payroll systems are in place for both agencies and, where appropriate, have been tested. Arrangements are in place for the physical transfer of staff and data. Also with a view to a smooth transition to the new organisation, the HCA finance and IT systems have been tested successfully. The TSA financial systems are in place and are fully operational. To achieve the benefits expected from it, therefore, the HCA will need to create a truly single agency from its component parts, which also means a single culture. That process will start immediately after 1 December with the development of a new regional structure for the agency and will include a wholesale review of the agency’s accommodation requirements and continuing work to create a distinctive culture for the HCA. The benefits offered by the HCA are already evident in the department’s developing a response to changing market conditions. I shall take a few moments to talk about this because it is such an important part of what will be done. The HCA’s scale and the flexibility that comes from having housing and regeneration programmes delivered by the single agency are valuable additions to our policy armoury. Further benefits will flow in the next CSR period when it may be possible to redesign existing programmes to fully exploit the synergies that are available from the single agency. The HCA is coming into being in a very different context from that in which it was conceived. To pick up the point made last night by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, we are looking at a very different situation. There is unlikely to be any area of the HCA’s business that is unaffected by the credit crunch. House purchasers and house builders and developers are unable to access the funding they need, and activity is slowing markedly. The scale and speed of the downturn in the housing market have been striking. In the context of a wider economic downturn, the role of the HCA is likely to be significant. There continues to be a significant gap between supply and rising demand for new homes, and the HCA will be central to addressing that gap. To support that, the Government are pressing ahead with the reforms that are needed to focus on the long term and condition the market and industry for growth, including repackaging surplus public sector sites and ensuring better infrastructure co-ordination. The HCA will obviously have a key role to play in that, as it will in the administration of HomeBuy Direct and the purchase of developer stock, both of which form key planks of the Government’s response to the current economic downturn. As a means of delivering in this changed climate, the HCA has identified its key immediate priorities as having a close understanding of what is happening on the ground now and likely to happen in the near future, adopting a proactive, flexible and creative approach to ensure that as much market activity as possible can continue, and developing new approaches to broadening the base of providers and accessing new sources of finance. As a means of delivering against those priorities, the HCA is therefore developing plans to find effective ways of focusing on the delivery of social and affordable housing and housing supply; working closely with the RDAs on regeneration projects that are most at risk or in danger of stalling; making sure that money invested in regeneration and infrastructure assists in job creation; working as flexibly as possible with the housing developers by, for example, releasing smaller parcels of land, even if that is marginally less cost-effective; working with the financial sector to find new ways of funding that can help unlock the supply of homes; supporting local authorities and regions in their role in housing delivery, regeneration and development; developing, as quickly as practicable, original and innovative solutions and working flexibly to maximise the synergies across the programmes so that every penny counts; and involving local people and communities to make sure that its investment solutions are wanted and deliver what is needed. The HCA has to do all that without ever losing sight of the need for long-term sustainable development to create high quality places and housing and help combat climate change. The implementation of these plans should enable the HCA to continue to deliver against its objectives throughout this period of economic turmoil and leave us well positioned for the world that emerges from the current economic conditions. I have taken the liberty of explaining a bit of the context in which the HCA is now working. I hope that noble Lords will find that helpful and will approve the order. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 15 October be approved. 28th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Baroness Andrews.)