What is the future for social housing: reflections on the public sector provisions of the Housing Act 1996

Abstract

During the period of Conservative government from 1979 to 1997, scarcely a year seems to have passed without the enactment of new legislation on housing or housing related matters. The year 1996 was no exception. With the passage of the Housing Act 1996, many of that government's housing proposals which were first set out in a White Paper published in 19951 came into being. Other proposals made there were implemented in the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 19962 while the Finance Act 1996 contains the 'housing investment trusts' provisions which were also foreshadowed in the White Paper.3 Despite the change of government in May 1997, this housing legislation may very well prove to be at least as significant as the Housing Act 1988.4 In some respects it may eventually be seen as the most important legislation on this subject since the previous government's first housing legislation, the Housing Act 1980. The Housing Act 1996 consists of 233 sections and 19 schedules and this tells only part of the story since the Act has also spawned a myriad of secondary legislation and codes of guidance and practice.5 Most of the provisions affect public sector housing, though there are some significant private sector measures, notably those which affect assured tenancies and long residential leases. This note considers the public sector provisions of the Act. After examining the background to the legislation, it then deals in turn with the new provisions governing housing associations, the revisions to local authority responsibilities over houses in multiple occupation, and the new local authority powers aimed at combating nuisance