You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Welsh Government ‘flying in the dark’ on reclassification, says Sargeant
Welsh legislators are “flying in the dark” as they attempt to pass a bill to shift housing associations back to the private sector, the minister with responsibility for housing has said.
Carl Sargeant, cabinet secretary for communities and children, told assembly members that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has indicated it will not provide a “running commentary” as the legislation moves through the Welsh Assembly.
He was appearing before the Sub-Committee on the Regulation of Registered Social Landlords (Wales) Bill this morning.
Housing associations in the UK’s devolved nations were moved onto the public balance sheet by the ONS in September 2016, meaning their borrowing technically comes out of the public purse.
The Welsh Government introduced a bill to deregulate landlords enough for the ONS to shift them back to the private non-financial sector last week.
But Mr Sargeant said he has “some sense of nervousness” about whether tweaks made to the bill during the scrutiny process could result in the ONS deciding not to do so.
READ MORE
He said: “[The] ONS is an autonomous body completely independent of governments and its views are sacrosanct. We have to play their game, and we are doing that and the bill that we’ve designed ticks their boxes to allow us to continue to build and access finances.
“Does it concern me about going through scrutiny about where we end up? Of course it does, absolutely, because I know at the moment we’ve got a pass. There is nothing guaranteed or there’s no shape of what will be acceptable to them. So we are flying in the dark here apart from we’ve got a pass to go.”
He added that he considers the bill in its current form to be fit for purpose and that the regulatory framework would ensure landlords remain properly scrutinised.
Under the proposed legislation, the Welsh Government will lose its powers to control disposals of land by housing associations and limit local authority influence on boards. There will also be tighter rules on when ministers can intervene in troubled associations.
In 60 seconds: deregulation of English housing associations
