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NIHE tower block decommission plan to cost £225m
Decommissioning Northern Ireland’s tower blocks and rehousing residents could cost the region’s housing authority an estimated £225m over the next 30 years.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which owns more than 85,000 homes including all of Northern Ireland’s 33 tower blocks, plans to end use of its entire high-rise stock over the next few decades.
Reports commissioned by the landlord have previously raised questions about the financial viability of keeping the blocks and pointed to their increased fire safety risks.
Tower Blocks Draft Action Plan Briefing produced by the NIHE warns that projected costs for maintenance and management of its high-rise stock “far exceeds rental income” – with “limited potential to reduce costs and increase income”.
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It estimates that retaining the towers would require £308.8m over the next 30 years, almost double the per-unit costs of other NIHE stock.
And it warns that even with all possible safety measures implemented based on a report carried out after the Grenfell Tower disaster, tower blocks would still pose “the greatest fire safety risk”.
Last year, residents of an NIHE high-rise in Belfast were evacuated because of a major blaze in the block.
The draft document concludes there are “considerable imperatives for decommissioning the portfolio” but adds that such a plan is “not possible or deliverable at this time”.
The NIHE is locked in a funding crisis and has warned it may have to start leaving up to half of its stock to fall into disrepair.
Instead, it proposes a ‘twin track’ approach, decommissioning some blocks where tenants can be more easily rehoused in the short term while holding on to other buildings which have recently received investment or will be harder to re-provision for longer.
That plan would still include around 15 towers being redeveloped in the next five years – with rents frozen, flat sales blocked and re-lets ended in these blocks.
‘Overspill’ sites for rehousing would be built by housing associations, but the NIHE wants to build the homes being directly redeveloped itself, having not delivered any new homes since the early 2000s.
Other blocks being kept for the medium or long term will continue to receive investment, including the installation of sprinklers.
The £225m cost of the proposals takes account of bills for further investment, the cost of leasehold buy-backs, compensation payments, demolitions and new build.
Of the 1,931 total high-rise flats in the NIHE’s stock, 281 have been sold under the Right to Buy.
The NIHE is also currently in discussions with telecoms companies which use its towers earmarked for demolition for masts.
This month, the body will report to its board with the results from a consultation of tower block residents about decommissioning proposals.
