Section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provision) Act 1992 enables housing authorities to provide capital funding to approved housing bodies (AHBs) in respect of the provision of housing. A body seeking to obtain, and to retain, approved status under Section 6 of the Act must have as primary objectives, the provision of accommodation for low-income families or persons with special needs such as the elderly, the homeless or persons with a physical or intellectual disability. It must also have in its memorandum of association or registered rules, as the case may be, provisions prohibiting the distribution of any surplus, profit, bonus or dividend to members and requiring that the assets of the body be applied solely towards its objectives.
Approved housing bodies (AHB) are the owners of the accommodation schemes financed under my Department's capital funding schemes. These bodies have overall responsibility for the proper management and maintenance of their dwellings. It is also their responsibility to ensure that procedures and administrative arrangements are in place to achieve compliance with the terms of the capital funding schemes. It is a matter for the housing authority to have suitable liaison arrangements in place to oversee the administration of the schemes, and to ensure that the investment made in the dwellings provided under the schemes is preserved and the terms of the mortgage arrangements are complied with.
The Government's Housing Policy Statement, published in June 2011, identifies AHBs as key partners in the delivery of social housing. This recognises both the constrained funding levels available for local authority construction programmes and the capacity and track-record of the voluntary and cooperative housing sector.
AHBs are uniquely placed to help drive the achievement of the housing supply responses set out in the policy statement. However, the move from capital funded programmes of construction and acquisition by approved housing bodies to more revenue funded options presents challenges for them. As such, I intend to develop an enabling regulatory framework for the sector that will provide support and assurance both to the sector itself and to its external partners as it takes on the expanded role envisaged for it in the policy statement and to underline its status as a viable and attractive investment opportunity for financial institutions.
The development of such a regulatory framework, which is both robust and harmonised with the varying capacities of individual AHBs, will take some time. In the interim my Department is actively working with the sector on the development of a voluntary code which I expect most bodies will endorse. This code, which should be finalised and agreed in the coming months, will serve as a learning opportunity for the sector and for my Department as we develop a longer-term statutory framework that will best support the enhanced role of AHBs.
In the context of this regulatory work, my Department is keeping the situation in relation to the expiration of mortgage periods under review and will examine, in consultation with housing authorities and the voluntary housing sector, whether specific guidance in this area might be of assistance.