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Ben CollinsPreparing for the next three years
As the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA) prepares to publish its three-year strategy, chief executive Ben Collins outlines its key areas of focus
NIFHA’s new three-year corporate strategy will be published shortly.
Our members will continue to focus on delivering great homes and thriving communities. There are currently 37,611 households on the social housing waiting list in Northern Ireland. Nearly 24,000 of these remain in urgent need of accommodation or are in seriously unsuitable accommodation.
In addition to meeting urgent housing need, our investment is a significant economic driver for the region, particularly of construction.
Housing associations manage more than 49,000 homes, employ more than 3,200 staff, and contribute around £70m through remuneration to the local economy each year.
As registered charities operating as businesses, our associations match grant funding with private funding to build more social and affordable homes.
Ensuring that we can continue to provide this great value to deliver more new homes will be a major focus over the next three years.
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The derogation provided by the UK Treasury, which allows housing associations in Northern Ireland to continue operating as private businesses despite the Office for National Statistics’ reclassification of them as public bodies, is due to end in March 2019.
As we have no government, it is unclear whether the necessary legislation to have this reversed will go through Westminster or a restored Northern Ireland Assembly.
We will continue to work closely with the Department for Communities (DfC) to ensure that if no legislation is passed we can still operate under the derogation.
Promoting health, well-being and inclusion remains a key priority, especially when people are living longer with more complex needs.
“Around 90 per cent of social housing estates are single identity while intimidation still forces families to flee their homes.”
That’s why we continue to campaign to protect funding for the Supporting People programme which provides vital services for more than 20,000 vulnerable people and saves the public purse elsewhere.
That’s also why our members spend £3.4m and leverage an additional £5.3m each year to provide 300 facilities and services benefiting more than 25,000 people in their local communities.
10 April 2018 was the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, but barriers to integration remain. Around 90% of social housing estates are single identity, while intimidation still forces families to flee their homes.
NIFHA continues to promote inclusion through the Northern Ireland Executive’s Together: Building a United Community and Shared Future Housing schemes.
In addition, NIFHA and its partners have recently secured just less than £926,000 in grant funding from the Peace IV programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body, for the Housing Associations’ Integration Project.
This unique initiative will bring together social housing tenants from a range of religious and cultural backgrounds to address common issues, with a view to building coalitions of interest, joint working practices, capacity and understanding.
“Over the next three years, welfare reform will remain a priority.”
Universal Credit is being rolled out across Northern Ireland, and we are working closely with the DfC, Northern Ireland Housing Executive and our members to ensure that it is as smooth a process as possible for our tenants. Over the next three years, welfare reform will remain a priority. The Northern Ireland Executive agreed a series of mitigations for some welfare measures. These are due to end in 2020, and so we will be working with our members to help prepare for the end of these mitigations.
The first set of annual returns under a new regulatory structure has recently been submitted, and we will be working with the department’s regulation team to share feedback on this process. We welcome the regulation team’s desire to move towards a risk-based approach, and NIFHA is keen to help them achieve this.
We are now less than one year away from the date when the UK will leave the European Union. While it appears likely that there will be a standstill transition until the end of 2020, Northern Ireland’s unique circumstances as the only part of the UK which shares a land border with another EU country means there are extra concerns here.
“We welcome the regulation team’s desire to move towards a risk-based approach.”
The Irish border has been largely invisible since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and both the UK government and the European Union have stated that they are committed to there being no physical infrastructure on the border after Brexit.
Despite this, it remains unclear how this commitment will be delivered.
As the island of Ireland operates an all-island economy in many ways, there would be significant economic as well as social impacts if the border was hardened following Brexit.
In addition, housing associations here have been able to draw down European Investment Bank funding until recently. We will be pressing for the ability to access such funding to continue post-Brexit.
Despite the many challenges, housing associations in Northern Ireland will continue to deliver quality social and affordable homes for those who need them most. We will also continue to invest in facilities and services to help build thriving communities.
Ben Collins, chief executive, Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations
