Remedy
Start free

Section 5: Housing associations.

Housing Act 1985 · 1985 c. 68View on legislation.gov.uk

Part I: INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

In this Act "housing association" means a society, body of trustees or company—

which is established for the purpose of, or amongst whose objects or powers are included those of, providing, constructing, improving or managing, or facilitating or encouraging the construction or improvement of, housing accommodation, and
which does not trade for profit or whose constitution or rules prohibit the issue of capital with interest or dividend exceeding such rate as may be prescribed by the Treasury, whether with or without differentiation as between share and loan capital.

In this Act "fully mutual", in relation to a housing association, means that the rules of the association—

restrict membership to persons who are tenants or prospective tenants of the association, and
preclude the granting or assignment of tenancies to persons other than members;

and "co-operative housing association" means a fully mutual housing association which is a registered society within the meaning of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.

In this Act "self-build society" means a housing association whose object is to provide, for sale to, or occupation by, its members, dwellings built or improved principally with the use of its members' own labour.

In this Act "registered social landlord" means a housing association registered in the register maintained under section 1 of the Housing Act 1996, subject as follows.

References to registered social landlords include, where the context so permits, references to housing associations registered in the register maintained by Scottish Homes under section 3 of the Housing Associations Act 1985 (Scottish registered housing associations).

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.