| While home ownership dominates the housing market in Northern Ireland with nearly three quarters of all dwellings in owner occupation, the need for good quality social housing remains undiminished. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive's creation in 1972 as the regional strategic housing authority has had a significant stabilising influence throughout the years of the 'troubles'.
The social housing sector is under great strain here- as it is the rest of the United Kingdom - with demand outstripping supply. Waiting lists of people seeking social housing -particularly those who are homeless or require social housing urgently- have increased significantly over recent years, and this trend is expected to continue. Meanwhile, the continued success of the house sales policy and the failure to meet the targets for building new houses has meant that the supply of social housing has fallen dramatically.
Urgent action on a number of fronts is required to redress this imbalance in supply and demand. We recommend that the government examines:
- the level of new house building required to meet demand
- the management of new social house building
- the fundamental impact on social housing of the house sales policy
- the regulation and impact of the private rented sector on social housing provision
- the impact of the co-ownership scheme on social housing
- the need to identify a challenging quality housing standard
Promising initiatives are underway, but these are being pursued in isolation. If action is not taken quickly the crisis presently threatened in social housing provision is likely to become a reality. The government requires to move without delay to construct and implement a co-ordinated regional housing strategy ensuring that the efforts of all relevant departments and agencies are maximised.
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