Housing and Regeneration Act 2008

General provisions

122 Payments to members etc.

(1) This section restricts the making of gifts, and the payment of dividends and bonuses, by a non-profit registered provider to—

(a) a member or former member of the registered provider,

(b) a member of the family of a member or former member,

(c) a company which has as a director a person within paragraph (a) or (b).

(2) A gift may be made, and a dividend or bonus may be paid, only if it falls within one of the following permitted classes.

(3) Class 1 is payments which—

(a) are in accordance with the constitution of the registered provider, and

(b) are due as interest on capital lent to the provider or subscribed in its shares.

(4) Class 2 is payments which—

(a) are paid by a fully mutual housing association (within the meaning of section 1(2) of the Housing Associations Act 1985 (c. 69)),

(b) are paid to former members of the association, and

(c) are due under—

(i) tenancy agreements with the association, or

(ii) agreements under which the former members became members of the association.

(5) Class 3 is payments which—

(a) are in accordance with the constitution of the registered provider making the payment (“the payer”), and

(b) are made to a registered provider which is a subsidiary or associate of the payer.

(6) If a registered company or industrial and provident society contravenes this section—

(a) it may recover the wrongful gift or payment as a debt from the recipient, and

(b) the regulator may require it to take action to recover the gift or payment.

123 Disposal of property

Chapter 5 makes provision about disposal of property.

124 Complaints

(1) In section 51 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Housing Act 1996 (c. 52) (schemes for investigation of complaints by housing ombudsmen) for “Relevant Authority”, wherever appearing, substitute “Regulator of Social Housing”.

(2) In section 51 of that Act—

(a) for subsection (2)(a) substitute—

“(a) a registered provider of social housing,”,

(b) in subsection (2)(d) after “registered with” insert “the Regulator of Social Housing or”, and

(c) at the end add—

“(7) Section 52 shall apply to an order under subsection (4) (with any necessary modifications).”

(3) In paragraph 6(2) of Schedule 2 to that Act (grants) for “Housing Corporation”, in both places, substitute “Regulator of Social Housing”.

(4) In paragraph 11(4) of Schedule 2 to that Act, omit—

(a) “or the Housing Corporation”, and

(b) “or, as the case may be, the Housing Corporation”.

(5) At the end of Schedule 2 to that Act add—

“General provision about orders

12 Section 52 shall apply to an order of the Secretary of State under this Schedule (with any necessary modifications).”

125 Voluntary undertaking

(1) A registered provider may give the regulator an undertaking in respect of any matter concerning social housing.

(2) The regulator may prescribe a procedure to be followed in giving an undertaking.

(3) In exercising a power under Chapter 6 or 7 the regulator must have regard to any undertaking offered or given.

(4) The regulator may found a decision about whether to exercise a power under Chapter 6 or 7 wholly or partly on the extent to which an undertaking has been honoured.

126 Sustainable community strategies

If invited by a local authority to participate in the preparation or modification of a sustainable community strategy under section 4 of the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22), a registered provider must co-operate with the local authority.