30th Nov. 2001.
In Brief: Camden investigates.
Camden council's all-party independent scrutiny panel
looking at the regulation of RSLs is inviting evidence from
housing associations working in the London borough.
The panel will investigate events at troubled West
Hampstead Housing Association, and the council's role in
working with the Housing Corporation to monitor RSLs.
This will include looking at information available
to the council, and whether it should have known about West
Hampstead's financial difficulties at an earlier stage
(housing Today, 16 October).
1st December 2001
Governance debate is necessary
Housing Corporation chair Baroness Dean has warned that
'weak areas' in the governance of housing associations will
have to be tackled. The baroness told last week's
corporation conference that the sector generally had a good
record on 'scandals' given its size and longevity. But she
said that events of the 'last few weeks' had made a debate
about corporate governance all the more necessary. 'If we
have some weak areas we will deal with them', she said....
Camden to scrutinise corporation.
Camden council is inviting housing association staff and
tenants to submit evidence to the all-party scrutiny panel
it has established in the wake of the crisis at West
Hampstead Housing Association (Inside Housing, 19 October).
Camden decided that the failure to predict West Hampstead's
problems meant it could no longer rely on the Housing
Corporation for information about the financial health of
RSLs.
The panel will clarify and assess the respective roles of
the council and the corporation, examine the lessons of West
Hampstead, consider how Camden can ensure its partner
associations are financially robust and make recommendations
for improvements in policy and procedures on regulation and
monitoring. The panel will be holding meetings in public at
the town hall until February.