The housing association sector is made up of diverse organisations including charities, limited companies, and industrial and provident societies. They range from organisations which own and manage a small number of homes in a local community to large, national organisations which own and manage tens of thousands of homes. Increasing numbers of housing associations have been formed by the transfer of former local authority homes. A significant number work together in groups which provide common services and support.
The statutory regulator for housing associations is the Tenant Services Authority. Their primary source of new development funding is the Homes and Communities Agency. The Audit Commission and the Tenant Services Authority's lead regulation teams worked together on the inspection of housing associations. The results of inspection were used by the Tenant Services Authority in its overall assessment of housing association performance.
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) and the Audit Commission published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (PDF, 345kb), which set out how the two organisations worked together in regulating and inspecting housing associations. The MoU covered information exchange and communication, coordinated regulatory activity, promoting excellence, Board and Executive liaison and consultation on matters of common interest. The Commission supports the TSA's regulatory role through carrying out inspection on behalf of the TSA.
In addition, the Audit Commission applied the criteria outlined in its key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), first published in July 2004, to housing association inspections.
If housing associations were considered to be providing a 'poor' (zero-star) service or to have 'poor' prospects for improvement and a 'fair' (one-star) service, they were reinspected after 12 to 18 months. The reinspection looked at the same areas as the original inspection and the team included an inspector from the original inspection, whenever possible.