Monday, June 25, 2007

Cave Report - the single regulator and resident scrutiny panels

The Cave Report on social housing regulation (a pdf is available of the full report as well as an executive summary) has arrived at last! It is a pity that the government appears to be lukewarm on the recommendation of a single regulator for social housing. Surely Cave was right to query the silos in social housing regulation - why should ALMO or council tenants be regulated differently from housing association tenants?

Many of the Cave recommendations were perhaps heralded in advance.

My only initial criticism would be that the idea of resident scrutiny panels as a form of accountability is supported but does not feature very prominently in the report. I would argue that such panels can be more effective forms of voice for tenants than one or two tenant board members - especially for the increasing number of large social landlords.

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