The Local Government Association this week hit out at the Home Secretary's decision to leave housing associations out of its plans to end the culture of secrecy in public services
Registered social landlords had originally been included in the list of "public authorities" to which the newly-published draft Freedom of Information Bill applies.

But following lobbying from the National Housing Federation, RSLs are no longer listed alongside other bodies including councils, schools and police forces.

Instead the draft bill outlines the right of the Home Secretary to introduce new bodies such as RSLs to the list if it is deemed appropriate at a later stage.

Federation assistant chief executive James Tickell said including RSLs as public authorities would have been "inappropriate". But he said associations were committed to openness and "always looking for ways of improving disclosure of information".

Tickell added: "We will be looking to see if there are lessons to be learned from the act."

But LGA assistant director John Rees warned that if the proposals did not apply to RSLs they would "not be effective in a number of areas".

This was especially true in areas such as community safety and 'housing plus' where RSLs were getting involved in roles traditionally taken by local authorities.

Rees said: "The same standards should apply across the whole board, to anybody who is delivering public services and funded by public money. The citizen is not bothered as to what form the provider takes."

For housing authorities the proposals mean tenants and campaign groups may now be able to get hold of, for example, housing strategy documents or internal briefing papers to which they were formerly denied access.

But Rees added that the plans were so full of exemptions and so unclear that in some cases they could make information less easily available.

The consultation period on the draft bill ends on 20 July.

Source

Housing Today