Hidden danger

During the past few months the National Housing Federation (NHF) has waged a campaign to amend the government’s Housing and Regeneration Bill. According to the Federation, the Bill represented ‘the greatest ever threat to the independence of housing associations’.

Former housing ministers Nick Raynsford and Sir George Young, together with Lord Richard Best, have supported the Federation in its attempts to improve the Bill. The politics is fascinating, but this should not obscure the legislation’s likely long-term impact. In years to come, we may look back on the Bill as having posed less of a threat than Martin Cave’s 2007 report – Every Tenant Matters – on the regulation of social housing.