Standard and Poor’s give social housing regulation a credit rating thumbs-up

Standard and Poor's have concluded in a new report that the planned re-organisation of social housing regulation in England will not lead to any weakening in the level of control over the sector. They do not expect any changes to credit ratings on U.K. housing associations as a result of the new regulatory regime with an independent Office of Tenants and Social Housing from 2009.

This is good news for housing associations and plans for more new social and affordable homes. We can only wonder whether or not the suggestions of self-regulation from the National Housing Federation would have led to a similarly benign result.