Dungannon Anniversary - 12 November 2008

John, Mona, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Many thanks for your warm words of welcome here this evening.

It is a great pleasure for me to be able to join you here this evening to celebrate your 40th Anniversary as a Housing Association. And it is fitting, poignant even, that tonight we celebrate your 40th anniversary, just months after the 40th anniversary of what became known as the Caledon protest; a protest in a beautiful little village not far from here that became the catalyst not just for the birth of the Civil Rights Movement, but also the formation of your own Association in the Autumn of that year.

From your first scheme in Gortnasor, Dungannon you have certainly come a long way.

And just as you have come a long way  over  these last 40 years, so too has the quality of our housing stock that today is amongst the finest in Europe.  Where once we had unfitness levels of 20%, today they stand at little over 3%. And I do not underestimate the challenge that you, in particular, will have faced in helping address these unfitness levels.

Unfitness levels amongst rural dwellings are traditionally higher than those in our Towns and Cities. As a rural dweller myself, I know all too well the challenges and hardships faced by those living in the Countryside.

It is not always easy working in the communities you choose to serve and I applaud you for being prepared to address the complex housing problems faced by the people of Mid Ulster and West Tyrone, rather than simply taking the easy way out.  Indeed, when you first started to build houses in Eglish, Coalisland and Coagh all those years ago, your motto was ‘to provide good quality housing for families on low incomes’. That motto remains as valid today as it was all those years ago and I commend you for your early vision and commitment to helping the working poor.

The quality of housing that I see right across the North today is a tribute to the work of the wider Housing Association movement and you can be very proud of the role you have played in delivering this, particularly for those who you serve so well here in the heart of your own Community.

But we should not think for one minute that the job is done. Whilst we have made remarkable progress, improving the quality of our stock beyond recognition, my attention, your attention, our focus, must now switch to meeting the growing housing need that is sadly all around us.

I am sure that those of you here this evening will need no reminder of the very difficult and challenging financial context that we each face today.

I have followed closely, and with concern, the spread of the Financial Crisis across the world’s money markets.  It has impacted on all of us and as Minister for Social Development, I am doing all I can to protect the most vulnerable within our society from the fall out of these events.

None of this makes our work in protecting the disadvantaged any easier and I hope that the extraordinary actions taken last month by various Governments throughout the world will help to ease the current financial crisis.  

Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions. Across the North we face an extraordinary housing crisis and I am determined to find the solutions needed to overcome it.

That is why I made housing my first and foremost priority. I make no apology whatsoever for that.

When I became Housing Minister, I inherited a housing list with record levels of people in housing stress, records levels of homeless and record levels of those in need of housing.

Just as we have been able to increase the quality of our stock, I now want to increase the quantity of it.

I am delighted that in my first year we made a great start, delivering nearly 100 additional new houses beyond our targets.  So in congratulating you for the part you played in helping me deliver these new homes, I want to impress on you my desire to keep up the pace, to forge ahead with our Programme and to quite literally build on that start by delivering more new homes for those who need them most.

When I announced my New Housing Agenda earlier this year, I made it clear that I planned to bring forward new, innovative and creative solutions to address the problems: not just for those on the waiting lists but equally for those struggling to get onto the housing ladder - as well as support for those trying desperately in these troubled times to stay on it.

I have recently launched three new initiatives that will do just that.

Firstly, I plan to extend the current House Sales Scheme to allow existing social tenants the chance to own a part of their home and buy the rest over time.  Successive surveys have shown that the appetite amongst tenants to buy remains high, but affordability remains the barrier. So I plan to remove this barrier and create more pathways to home ownership for those who want to avail of them.

I also launched our Own a Home initiative which, despite recent press reports, has been very well received. In a first across the UK and Ireland, we have developed a genuine partnership approach between Housing Associations, lender, buyers and the Developer to create a wonderful affordable housing opportunity that once again will provide opportunities and choice to those who currently have none. Several applications are at a very advanced stage, and I know that your own staff have met with my Officials to explore the potential for Dungannon and District to get involved in a similar affordable housing opportunity.

The third initiative I recently brought forward is our Mortgage Rescue Scheme. Back in February, when I had completed my research and analysis, I felt that more and more people might need to avail of a safety net as they struggled to make ends meet. I will admit however that not even I foresaw just how many people would now be facing repossession.  

But, just as it is right that we promote responsible and truly affordable home ownership, we must not leave behind those who have now fallen on hard times. Our Mortgage Rescue Scheme will do just that.

Mr Chairman, over the past 40 years Dungannon and District Housing Association has been successful in meeting the housing needs of your community. You can look back with pride in all that you have achieved and you can look forward to the future with confidence.

The challenge for the next 40 years will undoubtedly be very different from the challenges of the last 40, but if the past is any indicator of the future, then you have a very bright one indeed,

Congratulations to you all and once again my thanks for allowing me to join you here this evening and celebrate your success of the last 40 years.

Thank you.