£200m cash crisis hits decent homes target

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is facing a £100 million shortfall in each of the next two years.

The hole has been caused by a massive drop in capital receipts from the sale of public land and social homes due to the recession.

Social development minister Margaret Ritchie said the Department for Social Development, which oversees the housing executive, would prioritise house building at the expense of housing improvement schemes. Initiatives such as the new mortgage rescue scheme could also face the axe.

In its 2008 annual report, the executive said it was ‘committed to meeting the decent homes standard for all housing executive homes by 2010’.

But a spokesperson for the DSD said the shortfall could change this. ‘There still is that commitment, but if the funds are not there, it isn’t going to be delivered as much as the minister wants,’ he said.

Ms Ritchie told the social development committee last week she ‘cannot stress enough the seriousness of this situation’.

‘If I have to make a choice between giving someone a new kitchen or a roof over their head - when there is not enough money to do both - I have to help those who are desperately in need of housing,’ she said.

In 2006 there were 162,100 non-decent homes in Northern Ireland.

The department has already revised the number of new homes that it expects to start in 2009/10 from 1,500 to 1,100.

Professor Paddy Gray from the University of Ulster said: ‘If [existing homes] are not improved they are going to need even more investment in the future.’

Chris Williamson, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations, added that it was important ‘that an adequate budget is planned for 2009/10’.

Meanwhile, a new commission on the future of housing in Northern Ireland, led by Lord Richard Best, is set to launch next week.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment