Housing and Regeneration Act 2008

Other key concepts

78 Regulator of Social Housing

(1) Section 81 establishes the Office referred to in this Part as “the regulator”.

(2) Chapter 2 makes provision for the regulator’s constitution and general powers.

(3) Other provisions of this Part confer functions on the regulator.

79 English bodies

(1) In this Part “English body” means—

(a) a registered charity whose address for the purposes of registration by the Charity Commission is in England,

(b) an industrial and provident society whose registered office for the purposes of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 (c. 12) is in England,

(c) a registered company which has its registered office in England,

(d) a community land trust which owns land in England, and

(e) any other person (whether or not a body corporate registered under the law of the United Kingdom) which—

(i) is not a Welsh body within the meaning of section 1A of the Housing Act 1996 (c. 52), and

(ii) makes available, or intends to make available, accommodation in England.

(2) In subsection (1)(d) “community land trust” means a body corporate which satisfies the conditions below.

(3) In those conditions “local community” means the individuals who live or work, or want to live or work, in a specified area.

(4) Condition 1 is that the body is established for the express purpose of furthering the social, economic and environmental interests of a local community by acquiring and managing land and other assets in order—

(a) to provide a benefit to the local community, and

(b) to ensure that the assets are not sold or developed except in a manner which the trust’s members think benefits the local community.

(5) Condition 2 is that the body is established under arrangements which are expressly designed to ensure that—

(a) any profits from its activities will be used to benefit the local community (otherwise than by being paid directly to members),

(b) individuals who live or work in the specified area have the opportunity to become members of the trust (whether or not others can also become members), and

(c) the members of the trust control it.

80 Provider of social housing

(1) In this Chapter a reference to the provider of social housing is to be construed as follows.

Type of social housing	Provider
Low cost rental accommodation	The landlord
Low cost home ownership accommodation: shared ownership	The landlord
Low cost home ownership accommodation: equity percentage	“The seller” within the meaning of section 70(5)(a)
Low cost home ownership accommodation: shared ownership trust	The “social landlord” within the meaning of paragraph 7(3) of Schedule 9 to the Finance Act 2003

(2) Chapter 3 provides for the establishment of a register of providers of social housing: persons listed in the register—

(a) may be referred to in an enactment or other instrument as “registered providers of social housing”, and

(b) are referred to in this Part as “registered providers”.