GUIDANCE ON APPLYING FOR REGISTRATION AS A PROVIDER OF SOCIAL HOUSING
FOREWORD
The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 ("the Act") created a new regulator of social housing - the Office for Tenants and Social Landlords. The operating name of this new organisation is the Tenant Services Authority ("the TSA"). The TSA's aim is to work with landlords and tenants to improve services for existing and potential tenants.
The Act also established a new statutory framework within which the TSA must operate. This framework enables the TSA to register and regulate providers of social housing. Providers of social housing registered with the TSA are known as "registered providers". Only registered providers will be regulated by the TSA.
This Guidance sets out how to apply for registration with the TSA and what requirements applicants will need to meet in order to be registered. It does not cover local authorities who, if they provide social housing, are subject to compulsory registration.
1. INTRODUCTION
Who is the TSA?
1.1 The Tenant Services Authority ("the TSA") (the operating name of the Office for Tenants and Social Landlords) was established on 1 December 2008 under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 ("the Act") as the new regulator of social housing. The TSA is responsible for registering and regulating providers of social housing. Any eligible provider of social housing can be registered with the TSA and only registered providers are subject to the TSA's regulation. Local authorities that provide social housing are subject to compulsory registration and this guidance does not apply to them.
1.2 Registration is voluntary (other than for local authorities) except where organisations receive financial assistance from the Homes and Communities Agency ("the HCA") to provide low cost rental accommodation and the organisation intends to be the landlord of those homes when they are let. A landlord of low cost rental accommodation provided with HCA financial assistance must be a registered provider, and will therefore be required to apply for registration. It does not, however, need to be registered before making an application to the HCA for financial assistance.
Who CAN register?
1.3 There are two types of registration in the Act: voluntary and compulsory. The term 'voluntary registration' is used to distinguish between applicants for registration, whose registration is deemed to be voluntary, and Local Authorities who are subject to the compulsory registration provisions in Section 114A of the Act. The voluntary registration provisions in the Act apply to any other organisation wishing to be a registered provider of social housing. However, any organisation which was already registered with the TSA (including those registered with the Housing Corporation) on 1 April 2010 ("registered social landlords") will automatically move on to the new register without the need to apply. Successful applicants for voluntary registration, as well as those organisations which moved across from the previous register, are known as "private registered providers" of social housing. The term "registered providers" is used to cover all registered providers of social housing ie both private registered providers and local authorities.
1.4 The Act sets out eligibility conditions that include the TSA's criteria that applicants for voluntary registration must meet. Applicants must first meet the statutory eligibility requirements and, once we have established that they are capable of being registered, applicants will be assessed against the criteria that the TSA has set. These criteria are about an applicant's financial situation, its constitution and other arrangements for its management. This Guidance sets out the criteria that the TSA has established and what information applicants for registration should provide to enable the TSA to assess whether they meet these criteria.
1.5 Any applicant that meets the statutory conditions for eligibility and meets the TSA's registration criteria must be registered by the TSA.
1.6 The Act does not place any restrictions on the types of body that may apply for registration and there is no prohibition on profit-making organisations being registered. The Act requires that applicants are English bodies, provide or intend to provide social housing in England and meet the criteria established by the TSA. Applicants may be be profit making or non-profit organisations.
1.7 The criteria established by the TSA are set out in this document. These criteria are linked to the regulatory standards, established by the TSA under Sections 193 and 194 of the Act and published in March 2010. These are the standards that registered providers of social housing will be expected to meet and against which the TSA will assess their performance.
1.8 Note that this guidance does not cover new registrations resulting from amalgamations, mergers or transfers of engagement from or between existing registered providers. These are covered in the TSA's Guidance Note 1 - Guidance for Constitutional Consents (Sections 212-214), Restructuring and Dissolution (Sections 160-165) which can be found on the TSA website.
Who MUST register?
1.9 The Act creates a requirement for registration linked to financial assistance from HCA. Section 31 of the Act requires that the HCA must, when providing financial assistance, impose a condition that a registered provider is the landlord of the accommodation when it is let. Applicants for financial assistance are not required to be registered at the time of making an application. Applicants for financial assistance who do not intend to be the landlord at completion of the dwellings will not be required to be registered. The requirement therefore covers the recipient of financial assistance at the point at which the property is let.
1.10 Local authorities are subject to the compulsory registration provisions of the Act. Any local authority which becomes a provider of social housing and is not already registered with the TSA must notify the TSA of this change in its position.
How to register
1.11 This Guidance and the accompanying application forms, published by the TSA under Section 116(2) of the Act, set out the requirements for voluntary registration as a provider of social housing that the TSA has established under Section 112 of the Act. It includes information on the requirements in the Act about who is eligible to apply for voluntary registration and the criteria, set by the TSA, that any eligible applicant must meet. Following consultation on the new regulatory framework under the Act, the TSA has established these new registration criteria to be applied from April 2010, replacing those set by the TSA's predecessor, the Housing Corporation, in 2004.
1.12 Application for registration is a two stage process. If interested in registration, applicants should first provide some preliminary information about themselves and their current or intended social housing provision. This will enable the TSA to assess whether they meet the eligibility conditions in the Act. Once the TSA is satisfied that this is the case, applicants then move on to the detailed application stage where they are asked to demonstrate how they meet the registration criteria.
1.13 This Guidance covers the two stages of this process, how and when to complete the application forms, the registration criteria, what information should be provided and how we will assess this information. From time to time we will publish information on our website which will be relevant to applications for registration, so applicants should look at this when applying.
1.14 If an applicant has been accredited by the HCA or Housing Corporation under the Housing Management Accreditation Scheme, it should set out in its application where it believes that its existing accreditation supports its application for registration and we will take this into account. Where the applicant's accreditation was approved by the HCA or its predecessor the Housing Corporation more than two years prior to the submission of its application for registration and it has not been subject to a review since its accreditation, we may decide that we cannot rely on the fact of accreditation and need to seek additional information to support the application.
How long will registration take?
1.15 Our aim is to progress registration applications as swiftly as we can, but we must ensure that our process is thorough. Applications submitted with the necessary information required will speed up the process as, inevitably, requests for additional information may take time to fulfill.
1.16 We hope that, for organisations that are already landlords of social housing, a decision can be made within a month of the preliminary application being submitted on whether they meet the eligibility conditions and can progress to completion of the detailed application. For organisations that are not currently landlords of social housing this period may be a little longer as we will have to assess the evidence of the intent to provide social housing.
1.17 The detailed application will take longer and this is more difficult to give a general indicative timescale as it will depend on the nature and complexity of the applicant's organisation. When a detailed application is submitted, we will carry out an initial review of this and will advise the applicant at that stage how long we expect the process to take. If there is any change to this timescale, the applicant will be informed and given a revised estimate.
Contacting the TSA
1.18 We hope that this guidance will help applicants understand our registration requirements and process. Our aim is to be as helpful as possible and potential applicants can contact the TSA at any stage to discuss a prospective application. Additional information can be found on the TSA website and any documents referred to in here are available there or we can provide this direct to any applicant if preferred.
1.19 Any queries on registration with the TSA should be made to:
Telephone 0845 230 7000
1.20 Applications should be submitted to or posted to:
Registrations Unit
Tenant Services Authority
Maple House
149 Tottenham Court Road
London
W1T 7BN
1.21 Once the registration process is underway, the TSA may request additional documentation to be sent. Unless advised otherwise, all documentation submitted to the TSA should be sent by email or post to the relevant address above.
2. THE REGISTRATION PROCESS
Two stage process
2.1 There are two stages to the registration process. In the first stage, applicants are required to provide information that will enable us to assess whether the applicant meets the eligibility conditions in the Act. This is the preliminary application process.
2.2 In the second stage of the process applicants will provide information that will enable us to determine whether they meet the registration criteria we have established under Section 112 of the Act. This is the detailed application process. Applicants should not complete the detailed application form until we have confirmed that they meet the eligibility conditions.
2.3 We are happy to work with potential applicants prior to submission of either the preliminary or the detailed application to advise on whether the proposals to be included in the application are likely to meet the statutory eligibility conditions and/or our registration criteria.
2.4 There are no differing requirements for applicants according to size, organisational form or any other factor. Applicants should provide the information that, in their view, will satisfy the TSA that they are capable of being registered under the Act and can meet the registration criteria. We would expect the amount of information provided to reflect factors such as the size of the applicant, including the complexity of their structure and the significance of the applicant within a given locality, their experience in social housing, and the nature of their future plans.
Preliminary application
2.5 Applicants must first complete a preliminary form to enable the TSA to assess whether the applicant is capable of being registered under the Act. Applicants must meet the eligibility conditions for registration set out in Section 112 of the Act. We cannot register an applicant that does not meet these requirements.
2.6 We will review the information provided by the applicant at this preliminary stage and determine whether, subject to meeting the registration criteria, the applicant is capable of proceeding to registration. If we are satisfied that this is the case, we will invite the applicant to complete the detailed application form. This two stage process has been designed to ensure that applicants who are not capable of being registered under the Act do not waste time completing the detailed application.
Detailed application
2.7 The detailed application process requires the applicant to set out how it will meet the registration criteria established by the TSA. We will review this information and determine whether, in our view, the applicant meets the registration criteria.
2.8 At this stage applicants will again be required to provide the information already provided at the preliminary stage about meeting the statutory eligibility conditions. This is because the TSA must satisfy itself that, at the point of registration, the applicant meets the eligibility conditions for registration under the Act and in the intervening time changes may have taken place that mean that the applicant is no longer able to proceed to registration.
Form of applications
2.9 Applications must be made on the forms provided by the TSA and each question on the form must be answered. Any applications that do not meet this requirement will be rejected.
2.10 The application forms should be signed by someone who has the authority, in accordance with the applicant's constitution, to sign on behalf of the applicant.
2.11 The TSA will not register an applicant with a name that is similar to the name of an existing or previous registered provider if it believes that the use of this name may cause confusion. It will not register an applicant with a name that it considers inappropriate or misleading.
Additional information
2.12 Applicants may be asked to provide additional information at any stage of the registration process. This might be to clarify information already provided or because we are unable to form a view on the basis of the information already provided and need additional information. Our assessment of an application is likely not to just be a paper-based exercise but we may wish to meet with key people identified in an application, visit the applicant or see the applicant's board or management team in action. The information gathered in these ways will supplement the information already provided.