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Sinn Féin votes against own policy to end Right to Buy in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland’s legislators have voted against unilaterally scrapping the Right to Buy as part of a bill aimed at keeping housing associations off the public sector balance sheet.
A proposed amendment to the Housing (Amendment) Bill (Northern Ireland) 2020 which would have abolished the Right to Buy for Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) tenants was rejected by the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday.
Sinn Féin joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland in blocking the amendment, despite the party’s official opposition to the policy.
Acting communities minister Carál Ní Chuilín, a Sinn Féin MLA, said the bill “was the wrong vehicle and the wrong avenue” for scrapping the Right to Buy, known as the House Sales Scheme in Northern Ireland.
She claimed the amendment would “hold things back” regarding the reclassification of housing associations.
The bill’s purpose is to deregulate housing associations sufficiently for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to reverse its 2016 decision to reclassify the sector as part of the public sector, potentially having a major impact on landlords’ ability to borrow for housebuilding.
Its most significant change will be to end the compulsory Right to Buy for housing associations in the region.
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Mark Durkan, the SDLP MLA who tabled extending the scrapping of the Right to Buy to the NIHE, questioned whether the amendment would impact the ONS’ decision and said: “I genuinely thought that this was a great opportunity to ensure full protection of our social housing stock.”
The Green Party and People Before Profit supported Mr Durkan’s amendment.
Deirdre Hargey, who has temporarily stepped down as communities minister for health reasons, promised in May to consult on the future of the NIHE Right to Buy.
Ms Ní Chuilín said during Tuesday’s debate: “I have no doubt that we will come back to this point.”
The NIHE sold 449 homes under the Right to Buy in 2018/19.
The debate came days after the Department for Communities (DfC) published a summary of responses to a 2018 consultation on the future of the Right to Buy as part of its preparations for a reclassification bill.
Eighteen of the 30 responses to the consultation supported ending the Right to Buy for both housing associations and the NIHE.
Mr Durkan said it was “absolutely appalling” that the document had only been published after the reclassification bill had entered the assembly, nearly two years after the consultation closed for responses.
Ms Ní Chuilín said she had also only received the report on Friday.
She added: “I know that the departmental officials are listening. I am going to bring that back because I do not think that it is acceptable, to be quite honest.
“I know that if Deirdre Hargey was standing here, she would say the same thing. It is not acceptable. I will get you an explanation of what happened.
“Even if I do not like it and you do not like it, you will get it. We will be consistent on that.”
The NIHE temporarily suspended Right to Buy sales in March as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic, but opened the scheme for applications again this week.
The Right to Buy allows council tenants to purchase their homes at heavy discounts and has been abolished by the Scottish and Welsh governments.
In Northern Ireland, local authorities transferred all their housing stock to the NIHE in the 1970s.
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