Title, coming into force and application

1.—(1) The title of these Regulations is the Housing Renewal Grants (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2024 and they come into force on 1 August 2024.

(2) These Regulations apply in relation to Wales.

Amendments to the Housing Renewal Grants Regulations 1996

2.—(1) The Housing Renewal Grants Regulations 1996( 3) are amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (5).

(2) In regulation 2(1) (interpretation), in the definition of “self-employment route”, in paragraph (b)(ii)( 4), for “National Assembly for Wales” substitute “the Welsh Ministers or the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research”.

(3) In regulation 41 (interpretation)—

(a) in the definition of “access funds”( 5)—

(i) for paragraph (a) substitute—

“(a) grants made under section 85 of the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 for the purposes of providing funds on a discretionary basis to be paid to students; ”;

(ii) for paragraph (d) substitute—

“(d) discretionary payments made from funds known as “Financial Contingency Funds” paid to students by the Welsh Ministers under section 14 of the Education Act 2002; ”;

(b) in the definition of “full-time course of study”( 6)—

(i) in paragraph (a), for “or by the National Assembly for Wales” substitute “, by the Welsh Ministers or by the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research,”;

(ii) in paragraph (b), for “or by the National Assembly for Wales” substitute “, by the Welsh Ministers or by the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research”;

(iii) in paragraph (b)(ii)—

(aa) for “National Assembly for Wales” substitute “Welsh Ministers or by the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research”;

(bb) for “that Council” substitute “the Welsh Ministers or the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research”.

(4) In regulation 43 (determination of grant income), omit paragraph (3A)( 7).

(5) In regulation 46 (treatment of student loans)—

(a) in paragraph (1)( 8), omit “unless it is a hardship loan, in which case it shall be disregarded”;

(b) omit paragraph (1A)( 9);

(c) in paragraph (2)(aa)( 10), for “regulation 2 of the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2002” substitute “Schedule 7 to the Education (Student Support) (Wales) Regulations 2018”.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Housing Renewal Grants Regulations 1996 (“ the 1996 Regulations”), which set out the means test for determining the amount of grant which may be paid by local housing authorities under Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996.

The Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (“ the 2022 Act”) establishes the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (“ the Commission”) and provides a new statutory framework for publicly funded tertiary education and research in Wales. These Regulations amend the 1996 Regulations to update references to legislation which is repealed by the 2022 Act and replace references to the National Assembly for Wales with a reference to the Welsh Ministers or the Commission, as appropriate.

These Regulations also amend the 1996 Regulations to correct out of date references to student support legislation.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations.