Power conferred on: Secretary of State
Power exercisable by: Regulations
Parliamentary procedure: Negative resolution
2. The new clause confers power on the Secretary of State to transfer any of the existing functions of the Housing Corporation ("Corporation") to the Regulator, the Homes and Communities Agency ("HCA") or the Regulator and the HCA concurrently. The power complements the Secretary of State's power in clause 69 to make transfer schemes transferring the property, rights and liabilities and is necessary in order to ensure a smooth transition from the Corporation to its successor bodies.
3. The power is necessary because it is proposed to establish the Regulator and the HCA and to transfer the Corporation's assets to them as soon as practicable after the Bill receives Royal Assent. This is essential to avoid an extended period where the existing and successor organisations are running in parallel. Such a situation would lead to uncertainty and lead to practical problems since in will be necessary for staff to be transferred from the Corporation to the successor bodies in order for them to function effectively. In the case of the Regulator, it is considered that it would be impossible for it to begin exercising all of its new regulatory functions for a considerable period of time (because of the requirements for consultation in relation to setting standards under clause 191) and it will therefore be necessary, in the short term, for the Regulator to exercise the Corporation's existing regulatory powers. The clause would allow these powers to be transferred to the Regulator and allow the Corporation to be dissolved.
4. The Committee will note that sub clause (2), of the new clause, would allow an order to make provision similar to the provisions contained in Part 2 of the Bill to registered social landlords in England, for example by conferring enforcement powers contained in Chapter 7 of Part 2 on the Regulator in respect of the functions transferred from the Corporation. While such a power might be regarded as a "Henry VIII" power the Department would regard this as more in the nature of a transitional provision similar to that conferred by clause 320 and it would be the Department's intention to ensure that the functions and enforcement powers of the Regulator under Part 2 of the Bill were brought into forces as soon a practicable.
5. The exercise of these powers are unlikely to be controversial. The Department considers that it is appropriate that the regulation making powers should be subject to the negative resolution procedure
