Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Department may register any housing association which is eligible for registration.

The Department shall, after consultation with such bodies as appear to it to be representative of housing associations, establish criteria which should be satisfied by a housing association seeking registration, and may vary those criteria in such manner as it may determine.

In deciding whether to register a housing association, the Department shall have regard to the question whether the association satisfies the criteria established in accordance with paragraph (2).

For all purposes other than rectification of the register, a society shall be conclusively presumed to be or to have been a housing association eligible for registration at any time when it is or was on the register of housing associations.