Housing Act 1988

19 (1) In section 28 (Corporation may appoint a person to inquire into the affairs of a registered housing association), in subsection (1) for the words “the Corporation’s staff” there shall be substituted “staff of any of the Corporations” and at the end of that subsection there shall be added “and, if the appointed person considers it necessary for the purposes of the inquiry, he may also inquire into the business of any other body which, at a time which the appointed person considers material, is or was a subsidiary or associate of the association concerned”.

(2) In subsection (2) of that section at the end of paragraph (b) there shall be added “or

(c) any person who is, or has been, an officer, agent or member of a subsidiary or associate of the association; or

(d) any other person whom the appointed person has reason to believe is or may be in possession of information of relevance to the inquiry”; and in the words following paragraph (b) for the words “the association’s business” there shall be substituted “the business of the association or any other such body as is referred to in subsection (1)”.

(3) After subsection (3) of that section there shall be inserted the following subsections—

“(3A) Where, by virtue of subsection (2), any books, accounts or other documents are produced to the appointed person, he may take copies of or make extracts from them.

(3B) The appointed person may, if he thinks fit during the course of the inquiry, make one or more interim reports to the Corporation on such matters as appear to him to be appropriate.”

(4) After subsection (5) of that section there shall be added the following subsections—

“(6) In this section, in relation to a housing association, “subsidiary” means a company with respect to which one of the following conditions is fulfilled,—

(a) the association is a member of the company and controls the composition of the board of directors; or

(b) the association holds more than half in nominal value of the company’s equity share capital; or

(c) the company is a subsidiary, within the meaning of the Companies Act 1985 or the Friendly and Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1968, of another company which, by virtue of paragraph (a) or paragraph (b), is itself a subsidiary of the housing association;

and, in the case of a housing association which is a body of trustees, the reference in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) to the association is a reference to the trustees acting as such and any reference in subsection (7) to the association shall be construed accordingly.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (6)(a), the composition of a company’s board of directors shall be deemed to be controlled by a housing association if, but only if, the association, by the exercise of some power exercisable by the association without the consent or concurrence of any other person, can appoint or remove the holders of all or a majority of the directorships.

(8) In this section, in relation to a housing association, “associate” means—

(a) any body of which the association is a subsidiary, and

(b) any other subsidiary of such a body,

and in this subsection “subsidiary” has the same meaning as in the Companies Act 1985 or the Friendly and Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1968 or, in the case of a body which is itself a housing association, has the meaning assigned by subsection (6).

(9) In relation to a company which is an industrial and provident society,—

(a) any reference in subsection (6)(a) or subsection (7) to the board of directors is a reference to the committee of management of the society; and

(b) the reference in subsection (7) to the holders of all or a majority of the directorships is a reference to all or a majority of the members of the committee or, if the housing association is itself a member of the committee, such number as together with the association would constitute a majority.”