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NIHE stock transfer programme suspended
A programme to transfer around 2,000 homes from Northern Ireland’s housing authority to housing associations has been halted after the plans proved unpopular with tenants.
The stock transfer programme was announced in 2013 by Nelson McCausland of the Democratic Unionist Party and then-Northern Ireland social development minister.
It was billed as an opportunity to provide funding for major improvement works to the homes.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which owns around 86,500 social homes, is in the grip of a severe funding shortage and has recently warned that it may have to stop investing in its stock after 2020 if the situation does not change.
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The programme was initially delayed pending a review, which eventually recommended in 2014 that the transfers should take place on an estate-by-estate basis.
However, tenants on the two estates which have had ballots – the Grange Estate in Ballyclare and the Ballee Estate in Ballymena – voted against the stock transfer.
The region’s Department for Communities has now decided to suspend the stock transfer programme.
However, a minister will need to be appointed before a final decision is reached on whether to scrap plans for stock transfer.
Northern Ireland has been without a government since January 2017 and remains in a state of political stasis.
A spokesperson for the NIHE said: “Given that the stock transfer programme has been suspended, the Housing Executive will now undertake some routine and cyclical landlord investment in these properties.
“The Housing Executive will therefore be in touch with tenants on the estate with details of any planned work being programmed for their homes.”
NIHE rents have been frozen at around £66 a week since 2016, while housing association rents tend to be considerably higher.
The authority is also unable to take on new borrowing – leaving it with a yearly funding shortfall of around £140m.
Professor Peter Roberts, chair of the NIHE, recently told Inside Housing the body “is close to a perfect storm”.
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