THE announcement by the Department for Communities of a huge shake-up in the provision of housing across the north is a massively encouraging sign that the oft-derided political institutions here can and will bring change for the better if the will and the courage exists.
Minister Carál Ní Chuilín has decided that the Housing Executive, after spending half a century effectively as caretaker of its existing properties and an overseer of the housing associations which have been the deliverers of the bricks and mortar, is to be repurposed.
There is an urgent need for the Housing Executive to get back to doing the sterling job it did in the years after 1971 when it was formed to take often discriminatory local authorities out of the housing equation. Great leaps forward were made in replacing Belfast’s largely decrepit public housing stock, even if that then new housing is now showing its age after decades of inadequate maintenance.
There is not a person reading this who can deny that the removal of the Housing Executive from the housebuilding field has been anything other than a disaster. That being the case, anyone who rejects the idea that housing is in need of root and branch change either hasn’t been paying attention, has no interest in the matter, or is a bad faith actor.
The challenges facing the Housing Executive are many, complex and daunting. Number one here in Belfast is the grotesque disparity in housing need between nationalist and unionist areas of the city. How grimly illustrative it is of the depth of our housing problem that the key issue that led to the formation of the Housing Executive – religious inequality in housing provision – remains the biggest problem that will face a revamped and reenergised Housing Executive.
The condition of existing public housing is a disgrace.It is estimated that some 40% of stock is in need not of urgent repair or maintenance work, but in need of either major works or replacement. Add to that the vast amount of viable housing which is in pressing need of denied repair and maintenance and the scale of the challenge becomes apparent.
The decision to grant the Housing Executive the power to borrow money will obviously impact most immediately on its ability to build, replace and maintain stock, but it will also give the HE the autonomy to move into a green, sustainable and environmentally sympathetic mode of practice.
Crucially, the courage that Ms Ní Chuilín has shown in driving through this vital reform must be replicated by those at the top of the Housing Executive and that means standing up to those politicians who in certain areas – North Belfast being a prime example – block, stymie and stall badly-needed new housing developments for nakedly cynical reasons of voter management.
Finally, no new housing plan will be worth the candle if tenants aren’t put front and centre of everything that the Housing Executive does.
