You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Housing associations in Northern Ireland finally declared private by ONS
Housing associations in Northern Ireland have finally been declared private organisations by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), bringing a four-year long saga over their status to a close.
On Friday, the ONS wrote to Northern Ireland’s government confirming its opinion that housing associations are part of “the private non-financial corporations sub-sector” for the purposes of accounting.
The decision means the sector will continue to be able to borrow for against its assets for development, unhampered by its debt appearing on the region’s public balance sheet.
It comes after legislation to reduce government control over housing associations in the region gained Royal Assent on 28 August.
Housing associations in Northern Ireland have been threatened with reclassification since 2016, when the ONS announced its intention to move the entire UK-wide sector to the public balance sheet for government accounting purposes.
Ministers in England, Scotland and Wales quickly moved to pass legislation to deregulate housing associations enough for the ONS to reverse its decision, but no such action was taken in Northern Ireland because of a three-year political deadlock that ended in January.
READ MORE
In May, Northern Ireland’s government decided to fast-track a bill to make the changes necessary for the ONS to reverse its decision.
The most significant of these changes was to scrap the mandatory Right to Buy for housing associations – or the House Sales Scheme as it is known in Northern Ireland.
An assessment of the sector by the ONS carried out since the legislation passed “concluded that public sector control of [housing associations] has been removed”, the letter said.
Ben Collins, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations, said: “This decision provides certainty for housing associations that they can continue to effectively match pound for pound government funding with private finance.
“This means that twice as many homes can be built, as would otherwise be possible, which is crucial when the numbers in housing stress continue to increase.”
Mark Graham, chief executive at Co-ownership, said: “These changes mean that we will be able to access long-term funding that will help more people into homeownership.”
