AQO 9073/11-16

Ms Claire Hanna
Social Democratic and Labour Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 05/11/2015
Answered On Date: 16/11/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Social Development to outline any surveys or studies her Department has undertaken to establish the extent of negative equity among local home owners.

Answer:

As your question relates to the work of the Housing Repossessions Taskforce, Minister Foster has forwarded your query to my Department. The Housing Repossessions Taskforce was established at the start of 2014 to investigate the impact of mortgage repayment arrears, repossessions and negative equity in Northern Ireland. Membership included representation from the advice sector, lenders, private landlords, professional bodies and the statutory sector. The work of the Taskforce was completed in two phases: the first phase produced an initial evidence paper on the mortgage debt landscape in Northern Ireland which was published in July 2014; the second phase used this evidence base to produce a suite of recommendations which was published in February 2015.

For your reference links to the Taskforce Initial Evidence Paper and Final Report are provided below:

https://www.dsdni.gov.uk/publications/housing-repossessions-taskforce-initial-evidence-paper

https://www.dsdni.gov.uk/publications/housing-repossessions-taskforce-final-report

The Information provided in this response is governed by the Principles and Protocols of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This is enforced by UK Statistics Authority.