Tenant Services Authority – stay of execution?

Today’s Financial Times reports that the Coalition is having second thoughts about abolishing the Tenant Services Authority.

The report indicates that practical problems are causing anxiety for the Treasury. There are worries about crystallising a £80m pension shortfall. There is also a risk that £50bn of housing association borrowing could be placed on the government balance sheet if the arms length regulator disappears.

The Coalition had already said that it recognised that independent economic regulation of social housing is essential for housing associations continuing to be considered low risk (and worthy of cheaper borrowing). Maybe the TSA will be kept as such a regulator.