AQW 22944/17-22


Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford


Tabled Date: 22/09/2021
Answered On Date: 05/10/2021
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities what work her Department is progressing to deliver the New Decade, New Approach commitment to focus on the priorities of housing to build on the outcomes of the previous Programme for Government to be included in the next Programme for Government.


Answer:
A full update of ongoing initiatives by my Department regarding New Decade New Approach housing commitments can be found below in Annex
Annex A
Commitments
Update
Executive will also enhance investment in and agree a new target for new social and affordable home starts.
Social Housing
A total of 2,403 social housing units were confirmed as actual starts during the 2020/21 year, exceeding the target of 1,850 starts. Of these starts, 2,111 are new build.
A budget of £162m has been secured for the Social Housing Development Programme in 2021/22 (£26m more than in 20/21). The Housing Executive are confident that this year’s SHDP target of 1,900 starts will be met.
I outlined my intention to ring fence part of the social housing budget, for areas of acute housing need.
Affordable Intermediate Housing
The Co-Ownership Housing Association (Co-Ownership) is my Department’s main partner for the delivery of intermediate/affordable housing. £158 million of funding has been approved to assist 4,422 people into home ownership between 2020/21 to 2023/24. As of 31st August 2021, 1,737 homes have been delivered toward this target.
Co-Ownership do not develop intermediate housing projects themselves, although 32% of Co-Ownership purchases for Q1 of 2021/22 were new builds.
Co-Ownership also operate a Rent to Own scheme through their subsidiary OwnCo Homes. This scheme is funded by £12.5 million FTC loans to support the purchase of over 80 homes for rent and eventual purchase by those households which are not yet financially ready to purchase a home, even by way of shared ownership, to date 70 home purchases have been made & 27 rent to own customers have moved into home ownership.
Work is also progressing with Co-ownership to develop a new Over 55 product aimed at providing an affordable housing option for older people. The proposal is to utilise £8m of Financial Transactions capital (FTC) to support the delivery of 118 homes over the next 4 years.
Intermediate Rent
This will provide a much needed additional supply of good quality, well managed and maintained homes, which are affordable for lower income people and families. Intermediate rent homes can provide a better more affordable rental solution for some, or be a stepping stone for some into low cost home ownership for others. Following consultation, work to finalise the agreed model and implementation can progress.
Tackle the maintenance backlog for Housing Executive properties.
Revitalisation plans were announced to the Assembly on 3rd November 2020. I intend to bring proposals to the Executive by March 2022, which will include details as to how to address the investment challenge facing the Housing Executive. Work has commenced on assessing the scale of this investment challenge and identifying suitable options to address these issues. A Programme Board has been established and has held a series of meetings on how to progress this work.
PfG Outcomes Framework to be augmented with a new outcome and indicators to provide specific focus on ensuring every household has access to a good quality, affordable and sustainable home that is appropriate for its needs.
The Executive Office has responsibility for the Programme for Government Outcomes Framework. I have advised TEO that I remain committed to the inclusion of a standalone housing outcome in the final PfG in order that the importance of housing as the foundation for a wide range of social and economic outcomes is properly recognised.
Executive to bring forward legislation to reclassify Housing Associations as external to the public sector to ensure the continuation of new social house building and the Co-ownership Housing Scheme.
The Housing (Amendment) Act (NI) 2020 passed into law in August 2020.
The Executive will examine options to remove £307m historical debt from the Housing Executive (£185m of this is capital, £122m is interest) and exclude it from having to pay Corporation Tax.
My officials and DoF are taking forward a joint work stream to explore options for the removal of historical debt.
The Chancellor announced in his 2021 Budget that the Housing Executive would be exempted from Corporation Tax. This will be effective from the 2020-21 tax year. My department continues to liaise with DoF seeking the refund of the monies paid by Housing Executive.
The Executive will agree a long-term trajectory for the rental charges of the Housing Executive. This must be sufficient to support the long-term future of Housing Executive’s social housing stock and provide demonstrably affordable rents to tenants.
Work is underway to determine the long term rent trajectory for Housing Executive rents. This is an integral part of a wider review of social housing rents.
Measures will be introduced, including legislation where necessary, to provide for controls to ensure affordability.
I have asked officials to undertake a comprehensive rental review leading to the production of policy proposals to better align rents across the social housing sector. This will be particularly important as we develop proposals to address the significant investment challenge facing the Housing Executive.
Annex A (Page 52): British Government Financial and Economic Commitments.
Turbocharging infrastructure
The Executive will benefit from increased funding for capital infrastructure investment as a result of the British Government’s infrastructure revolution.
The British Government agrees to financial flexibility to re-profile funding provided as part of the Fresh Start Agreement for shared and integrated education and housing.
The PfG ‘Housing for All’ programme runs over 4 years; the target is for 1000 shared housing units to be built over the period 2017/18-2020/21. DfC received in-year confirmation of ‘Fresh Start’ funding to deliver additional ‘shared housing’ in 20/21 (this is additional to the initial PfG target of 800 units over the period 17/18 – 20/21) The Draft PfG target of 800 units was achieved, and a further 197 units (including up to 20 affordable) will be delivered – giving a total of 977 + 20 ‘Housing for All’ units across 35 schemes. The Shared Housing Programme is now supporting 45 schemes in total with 1,480 units (483 units across the 10 T:buc schemes and 997 units across 35 ‘Housing for All’ schemes).