THE SDLP’s Communities spokesperson Mark H Durkan has warned the Communities Minister that she will be judged on housing delivery and not housing ambitions.
Mr Durkan, who is a member of the Assembly’s Communities Committee, was responding to a statement from the Communities Minister in the Assembly on housing.
Communities Minister Carál Ní Chuilín announced today that the Housing Executive is to undergo the biggest shake-up in its 50-year history.
The organisation will be split in two with its landlord arm becoming an independent mutual organisation.
This will enable it to borrow money and start building houses again – the first time it has done so in 20 years.
Said the Foyle MLA: ‘We are in the grip of a housing crisis with over 29,000 families on the NIHE waiting list in acute need of a home.
“So, I welcome any measures that will tackle our chronic social housing shortage and strengthen protection for tenants in the growing private rented sector and look forward to working with the Minister to deliver on these promises and to hold her to account on them.
“The Minister referred to over 29,000 households on the social housing waiting list with an acute need for a home.
“The Minister clearly recognised the need to build more homes but she will be judged on how many are actually built.
“Her party recently launched a proposal for 20,000 new homes but in the South.
“We need that same ambition in the North where Sinn Fein is actually in Government.
“Today is a missed opportunity, however, to address the serious abuse of intimidation points under the Housing Allocation Scheme.
“The truth is that the abuse of intimidation points is grossly distorting local waiting lists and preventing people in genuine housing stress from getting a new home.
“Everyone knows that people are skipping the queue – it is deeply unfair and it needs to be addressed immediately.
“The Minister needs to outline exactly when she will bring an alternative proposal for allocation to the Assembly otherwise these abuses will simply continue.
“She plans to consult on Right to Buy of Housing Executive homes but could have ended this practice of depleting our social housing stock back in June when the SDLP proposed an amendment to that effect, which her party opposed.
“There are significant and positive elements of this statement however and I am glad to see a lot of SDLP proposals emerging in the plans.
“Mutualisation of the Housing Executive to create new opportunities for public interest borrowing, for example, will help to alleviate long term funding pressures within the system.
“I look forward to working with the Minister and holding her to account on her promise to fundamentally reshape the delivery of housing across the North.”
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