17 August 2007
The Audit Commission's chief inspector of housing has laid out his case for becoming the new social housing regulator.
The government is consulting on the establishment of the new regulator for council and housing association homes, arm's-length management organisations and new private providers.
The consultation follows the Cave review, which recommended the creation of an independent body to oversee social housing.
But Roy Irwin told Public Finance that the Audit Commission was well placed to host that body itself. He said that the local government white paper meant the commission would already be paying close attention to councils' new 'place-shaping' role and ability to assess and balance competing local needs in their planning duties.
'The housing market differs between localities and the new regulator needs to work with social housing providers in their markets, not as if it's all the same,' said Irwin.
'The Audit Commission will have to understand the local housing market to assess how well councils are functioning and how well they are dealing with it. If the housing regulator were in a separate body, either you'd get duplication, or mixed messages with one regulator saying: “We think your rents ought to go up”, and the other one saying: “You need to reflect your rents more closely to the local economics”.'
Cave said that the commission was capable of taking on the new role but had 'limited experience of housing regulation beyond what is involved in inspection; has little previous contact with for-profit providers… and has little support from stakeholders.'
Cave therefore favoured the establishment of a new body.
Irwin admitted that a future 'Office for Housing Standards', based at the Audit Commission, would need to strengthen its analytical skills as well as establish strategic tenant input.
But he said the same would apply to any new organisation, and emphasised that the commission would be able to collect single sets of data for two roles.
A further advantage, argued Irwin, was that the commission was big enough to avoid being 'captured' by any one interest group, including the government. 'The Audit Commission is big enough to stand up to the government over policy: we've got a 21-year track record of doing that in a mature way,' he said.
One policy issue a new Office for Housing Standards might take up would be 'policy passporting', he said, where the government avoided the need for new legislation by enforcing policy through regulation.
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