Housing Rights Sevice Seminar – 24 November 2009

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and may I add my words of welcome to each of you for making time to attend this seminar today.  I am delighted to have the opportunity to join you here this morning.  I am particularly pleased to be here for two reasons.  Firstly, housing and housing issues are at the very top of my priorities, and secondly, I want to show my support for the Housing Rights Service, which has a long and distinguished history of providing a valuable source of advice and support to those with housing difficulties.

The Housing Rights Service is the leading provider of independent specialist housing advisory services in Northern Ireland. Their ethos is that “everyone has the right to a decent, safe, affordable home”.  An ethos, I’m sure you will agree that we can all subscribe to.  Established in 1964, HRS has had a long association with the Department and their contribution is greatly appreciated

As Minister for Social Development my first and foremost priority is to increase the supply of housing.  This issue affects the lives of so many people and there can be no more fundamental right in this day and age than to have a home to live in or to call your own.  I continue to see for myself the difference that good quality housing can make to people’s lives and it reinforces my view that, despite the many calls on our increasingly sparse budgets, investing in housing is the right thing to do.

I am also convinced that the home is the key building block of our communities and of our society.  It is therefore self evident that where there are excluded from this, then there is a job to be done by all of us. We have to ensure that everyone has access to the housing and services that they are entitled to, so that they have every opportunity to play a full part in society.

When I launched the New Housing Agenda last year I was very clear that more needed to be done in the provision of social housing.  Whilst we have already achieved a great deal since then, it is clear that there is much more still to do.  And the biggest challenges facing us are, inevitably linked to the availability of resources.

The economic downturn has had a major impact on us all. For me it has shattered our capital receipts income and forced us to curtail our plans.  For individual householders; it can be much worse. The uncertainty over employment, if not actual loss of jobs, has resulted in many householders experiencing difficulties in meeting their rent or mortgage commitments.  The financial crisis and resultant debt problems can cause significant pressures both physical and emotional on individuals and can ultimately become a trigger to homelessness.

It is important that we understand the full nature and complexity of the issues facing people who find themselves in difficulties. It is vital that we all, through various means, provide appropriate support and guidance to these individuals.

In the New Housing Agenda, I indicated my intention to develop proposals for a Mortgage Rescue Scheme.  As you are aware such a scheme would have potentially helped people who were facing repossession due to mortgage arrears to sell their home (either in full or in part) to a Housing Association and then rent it back. Unfortunately bids made in several monitoring rounds for the resources to get the scheme underway have not been met.  

A sufficient funding meant that I was not in a position to launch the Scheme we had developed.  However, earlier this year, I was able to provide additional funding of over £100,000 to launch a Mortgage Debt and Advice Service.  This service was aimed at increasing the level of advice for people experiencing difficulty making mortgage payments.  

This specialised service is delivered on our behalf by Housing Rights Service.  So far the scheme has provided advice and support to almost 400 people who are in financial difficulties with their mortgage.

Similarly for landlords, the financial downturn has put added pressures on their ability to maximise their rental income and keep arrears to a minimum.  It is imperative that the management of rent collection is to the highest standard and that landlords have positive intervention measures in place to prevent an arrears situation building in the first instance.  

A further development in the area of rent and arrears management has been the Northern Ireland Audit Office report on The Management of Social Housing Rent Collection and Arrears and the subsequent Public Accounts Committee hearing and report.  Both drew attention to shortcomings in the management of rent collection and arrears within the social landlord sector.  The change of emphasis from arrears management to arrears prevention was a key theme of these reports.

We fully accept the findings from the Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee reports and we are currently working to implement their recommendations.

One of the recommendations is that the Department sets up formal arrangements for bringing together all the key stakeholders in the social housing sector to promote best practice including best practice in rental income management.  

The work required to implement this recommendation is very much in line with some of the work streams within the Preventing Possession Initiative which was launched by Housing Rights Service earlier this year.  The aim of this three year project is to tackle the growing issue of homelessness as a consequence of debt in Northern Ireland.

An advisory group was set up by Housing Rights Service, funded by my Department. The group has several aims including the identification of problems and potential solutions and the promotion of good practice within relevant networks.

A number of sub-groups have been established to undertake further work in the following four areas;

Today’s seminar has energy from the work to the Policy and Practice sub group whose role is to

This seminar is the first step in promoting best practice on rent collection, management and prevention of arrears.  

When the best practice guidance has been completed we would intend that this will form the basis of a comprehensive, uniform set of guidelines which can apply across the entire social rented sector.  To this end Housing Division would seek to include the guidance as part of the revised Housing Association Guide.

Other impacts of the economic downturn felt by my Department are the increased number of people now unemployed, the number of people seeking housing benefit and the number of people being added to an already long waiting list for social housing.

However the biggest challenge facing us is, inevitably linked to the availability of resources and I have stated publicly and in the Assembly that we must put the funding of Social Housing on a firm financial footing.  Housing is a fundamental right for everyone and we must have adequate resources to sustain  housing programme which comprises more house building alongside the provision of high quality services.

Ladies and gentlemen I wish you every success in your work today.

Thank you.