Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when it is expected to bring the structures appertaining to the operation of voluntary housing associations into line with the operational rules operated by local authorities with particular reference to the determination of rent and the governance structures of such organisations in line with company law and their articles of association; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39318/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Government’s Housing Policy Statement, published in June 2011, identifies approved housing bodies (AHBs) as key partners in the delivery of social housing. This recognises both the constrained funding levels available for local authority construction programmes and the capacity and track-record of the voluntary and cooperative housing sector.

The move from capital funded programmes of construction and acquisition by approved housing bodies to more revenue funded options presents challenges for AHBs and will take some time to be fully agreed and implemented. As such, I intend to develop a regulatory framework for the sector that will provide support and assurance both to the sector itself and to its external partners as it takes on the expanded role envisaged for it in the policy statement and to underline its status as a viable and attractive investment opportunity for financial institutions.

I will develop this framework in consultation with the sector but I expect that it will:

- assist approved housing bodies to develop key governance and management structures to facilitate an expanded remit;

- provide independent scrutiny and validation of such bodies’ competences; and

- place sustainable housing management policies and practices at the heart of a coordinated approach to the development of the sector.

To this end, on 8 August 2012 a draft voluntary code for the regulation of approved housing bodies was published on my Department’s website for public consultation. The consultation period runs until 21 September and I invite all interested parties to make their views known. This code will be a first step towards a statutory regulatory framework that will protect the very significant State investment in the sector over the last two decades and will provide assistance to those working in the sector to meet the challenges ahead. This code will serve as a learning opportunity for the sector and for my Department as we develop this longer-term statutory framework to best support the enhanced role of AHBs.