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The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is the public housing authority for
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...
. It is Northern Ireland's largest
social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...
landlord, and the enforcing authority for those parts of housing orders that involve houses with multiple occupants, houses that are unfit, and housing conditions. The NIHE employed 2,865 persons as of 31 March, 2020.


Functions and responsibilities

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive's website cites its main functions as being: *to regularly examine housing conditions and housing requirements; *to draw up wide ranging programmes to meet these needs; *to effect the closure, demolition and clearance of unfit houses; *to effect the improvement of the condition of the housing stock; *to encourage the provision of new houses; *to establish housing information and advisory services; *to consult with District Councils and the Northern Ireland Housing Council; *to manage its own housing stock in Northern Ireland The organisation is also the home energy conservation authority for Northern Ireland. It has statutory responsibility for homelessness and also administers the
housing benefit Housing Benefit is a means-tested social security benefit in the United Kingdom that is intended to help meet housing costs for rented accommodation. It is the second biggest item in the Department for Work and Pensions' budget after the state ...
system and Supporting People programme in Northern Ireland.


History


Background

Prior to the establishment of the Housing Executive,
public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, de ...
in Northern Ireland was managed primarily by local councils. Only ratepayers and their spouses could vote in council elections - sub-tenants, lodgers, and adults living with their parents could not - so allocation of housing was "distorted for political ends".David McKittrick & David McVea, ''Making Sense of the Troubles'', Penguin, 2012, p. 14 This largely took the form of discrimination against Catholics to ensure Unionist control of councils, opposition to which was a major plank of the
Northern Ireland civil rights movement The Northern Ireland civil rights movement dates to the early 1960s, when a number of initiatives emerged in Northern Ireland which challenged the inequality and discrimination against ethnic Irish Catholics that was perpetrated by the Ulster ...
of the late 1960s. Following civil disturbances in 1968-69, a commission appointed by the Northern Ireland government and led by Lord Cameron found that "grievances concerning housing were the first general cause of the disorders which it investigated".First Annual Report, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, 13th May 1971 to 31st March 1972 Lord Cameron's report concluded:
A rising sense of continuing injustice and grievance among large sections of the Catholic population in Northern Ireland, in particular in Derry and Dungannon, in respect of (i) inadequacy of housing provision by certain local authorities (ii) unfair methods of allocation of houses built and let by such authorities, in particular; refusals and omissions to adopt a 'points' system in determining priorities and making allocations (iii) misuse in certain cases of discretionary powers of allocation of houses in order to perpetuate Unionist control of the local authority


Establishment

The Housing Executive was established by the Housing Executive Act (Northern Ireland) 1971. A single all-purpose housing authority for Northern Ireland had been advocated as early as 1964 by the
Northern Ireland Labour Party The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was a political party in Northern Ireland which operated from 1924 until 1987. Origins The roots of the NILP can be traced back to the formation of the Belfast Labour Party in 1892. William Walker stoo ...
but it was not until the British Home Secretary,
James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...
, visited the Stormont Government in the wake of the Belfast Riots of August 1969 and pressed for a unified housing body that the Stormont regime took the idea seriously. Although the Bill was proposed by the Ulster Unionist Minister of Development,
Brian Faulkner Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive ...
, it was strongly opposed by Unionist right-wingers and by followers of
Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First ...
. The new organisation took on the functions and staff of the Northern Ireland Housing Trust in 1971, the housing functions and staff of 61 local authorities in 1972, and the housing functions of the New Town Development Commissions for
Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
, Antrim,
Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...
, and
Craigavon Craigavon may refer to: * Craigavon, County Armagh, a planned town in Northern Ireland ** Craigavon Borough Council, 1972–2015 local government area centred on the planned town * Viscount Craigavon, title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom ** ...
in 1973. It became the landlord of more than 150,000 dwellings, and introduced a points-based policy intended to ensure impartiality in allocations.Ivan Maginnis, ''Brick by Brick... A Short History of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive 1971-1991'', Northern Ireland Housing Executive, 1991 However, despite efforts to encourage integrated housing, sectarianism persists, and as of 2011 90% of all Housing Executive estates are predominantly one religious identity. A House Condition Survey in 1974 found that Northern Ireland had the worst housing conditions in the UK, with almost 20% of houses unfit for human habitation. The Housing Executive embarked on a programme of house building, seeing over 80,000 new houses built between 1975 and 1996.''More than Bricks: 40 years of the Housing Executive''
, 2011
It moved away from the high-rise buildings commonly constructed in the 1960s, concentrating on two- and three-storey houses. It introduced a renovation grants scheme in 1976, enabling privately-owned houses to be improved. A second House Condition Survey carried out in 1979 found that unfitness had fallen to 14%. A third survey in 1984 saw it further reduced to 8.4%. By 2011 it was 2.4%. A
right to buy The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large ...
policy, allowing tenants to buy their homes at discounted prices, was introduced in 1979. Derelict houses were sold on the open market, for prices as low as £100, accompanied by loans and grants to help buyers renovate them. The Housing Executive piloted a joint ownership scheme, which led to the foundation of the Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association. In 1991 the Housing Executive owned 170,000 dwellings in Northern Ireland. By 2016, the housing stock had reduced to less than 90,000. The Housing Executive stopped building new homes in 2002, this function being taken over by
housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost " social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help fi ...
s.Paddy Gray
"The role of social housing in Northern Ireland's divided communities"
, ''The Guardian'', 12 October 2016


Scandals and public scrutiny

A commission led by Judge Robin Rowland QC was established in 1977 to investigate Housing Executive contracts. It reported in 1979, finding that public money had ended up in the hands of front organisations for the IRA. In the 1980s, the Executive was scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee for irregularities in public liability claims and
district heating District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating ...
.


Proposals

A report published in June 2010 by Queens University Belfast stated that social housing in Northern Ireland was not adequately funded. In 2016 it was estimated that the Housing Executive's existing housing stock needed £7bn investment over the next 30 years. In 2013 the DUP's
Nelson McCausland Nelson McCausland (born 15 August 1951) is a former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician from Northern Ireland, who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Belfast from 2003 until he lost his seat in 2017. and ...
, then Social Development minister in the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the ...
, announced a plan to break up the Housing Executive, retaining its strategic function in the public sector and transferring its landlord responsibilities to housing associations. McCausland left the Department of Social Development in 2014, and his proposals were not put into action by his successors. In November 2020 the Communities Minister, Sinn Féin's Carál Ní Chuilín announced plans to allow the Housing Executive to borrow to invest in its housing stock.Housing Statement from Communities Minister Carál Ní Chuilín 3 November 2020
, Department for Communities


See also

* Red Sky scandal


References


External links


Northern Ireland Housing Executive website
{{Authority control Public housing in the United Kingdom Non-Departmental Public Bodies of the Northern Ireland Executive 1971 establishments in Northern Ireland Housing in Northern Ireland