Annex 2
CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATION
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Para. No. | Comment
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| 3 | Summary | The Sub-committee rightly points out that the number of applicants for social housing who are in housing stress has increased in recent years, however this has to be set within the context of how long it takes for people to be housed in appropriate accommodation. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) have indicated that the majority of people (79.91%) are housed within 12 months of joining the Common Waiting List. Those that wait longer do so because they would prefer to live in an area where there is intense demand for social housing or because they have complex accommodation needs. Over the past 3 years the NIHE have identified some 2,486 applicants with special circumstances that require specialist care and intensive support.
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| 8 | 13 | Whilst the Sub-committee correctly point out that responsibility for the Social Housing Development Programme transferred to Registered Housing Associations (RHAs) in 1996, it should be noted that a facility exists for the NIHE to build new social housing should a RHA be unable or unwilling to do so.
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| 14 | 35 | The Social Housing Development Programme is provided by RHAs in partnership with the Department for Social Development (DSD) and the NIHE. The Programme is delivered using a variety of mechanisms, RHAs can progress schemes as new build, package deals, off-the-shelf, rehabilitation, re-improvement or as existing satisfactory purchases. This facilitates crucial regeneration in urban and rural communities. The report highlights levels of new build achieved in 2003/04 at 1,140 new social housing units against a target of 1,500 new units. The increase in social housing stock available to rent due to RHAs making use of the existing satisfactory purchase facility and other mechanisms was omitted. RHAs used the scheme to acquire 193 properties. RHAs also provided an additional 259 communal and hostel units, and these combined to provide 1,526 units against a target of 1,575 (including 75 units for the homeless).
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| 15 | 40 | The Net Stock Model is a useful planning tool. It provides an estimate of what provision will be required based on:
Demographic trends including an estimation of concealed households,
The level of private sector construction,
Expected demolitions, expected second homes and vacant stock.
The methodologies employed were extensively validated by both the academics from the University of Ulster involved in applying the model and the NIHE's technical staff. The NIHE have indicated that 1,750 new social dwellings are required each year to address back-log and geographical imbalances in supply and demand. A working group has been established to consider how best to integrate this locally sensitive waiting list information with the Net Stock Model, and the indications are that this is likely to result in a further uplift of the annual requirement to around 2000 pa. Government is also confident that work under way to integrate housing needs assessments with the production of Area Plans will provide further guidance and indicators of need across 9 categories of housing: affordable housing, housing across tenures, housing for travellers, supported housing, student housing, vacant dwellings, second homes and areas scheduled for regeneration.
The NIHE has developed and presented a manual setting out the methodologies and data sources used in housing needs assessments, and the work has been validated by housing experts from 4 universities. The assessments will be published with Area Plans and will contribute to greater transparency and accountability in how housing need is determined.
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| 16 | 44 | The DSD Public Service Agreement (PSA) does incorporate a target for new social housing units. The Government's draft Priorities and Plans 2004-2006 document provides the over-arching planning framework for all Departments, setting out their high-level PSAs. Detailed targets for the delivery of these PSAs are defined further in each Department's Corporate Plan. DSD's high level target (PSA Target 2.1) is, "In each year, in partnership with the registered Housing Associations and the Voluntary Sector make provision for affordable low-cost accommodation for 12,000 households". This is broken down in the Department's Business Plan 2004/05, published as part of the Corporate Plan 2004-2007, into detailed targets across 16 actions. One of these deals specifically with the new build programme. The DSD routinely reports on progress and publishes end-year position reports. The most recent report is accessible via: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/publications/documents/2003-04_SDA_Detailed_Report_(IntranetInternet).pdf
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| 17 | 48 | The report states that, "around £37 million annually from record levels of sales is returned to the Treasury". This was the position in two years only, 2002/03 and 2003/04, which arose from a backlog of house sales applications due to the introduction of a new house sales scheme and the highest recorded purchases under the SPED scheme, which translated into additional sales. It is unlikely that excess receipts of this magnitude will be repeated. It is useful to set the figures in context of additional resources secured for housing. The DSD can prepare bids for additional resources and in recent years has been successful in securing funds to deliver both an expansion of the overall stock and improvements to existing stock. Analysis of receipts returned and successful bids over the past 4 years demonstrate that on average around 70% of all capital receipts are retained for housing purposes.
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| 18 | 53 | While it is true that only a proportion of the private finance can be attributed to the change in policy, that proportion is substantial representing 86.3% of private finance raised by RHAs from 1991/92- 2003/04. The report also notes that RHAs, "borrowed significant levels of private finance mainly to provide specialist housing and this role has continued." Special needs housing in Northern Ireland has enjoyed 100% Government funding of approved costs and consequently RHAs have not been required to borrow privately to deliver schemes of this nature.
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| 19 | 56 | The report states that the NIHE's land bank is not available to RHAs, however this is not the case. In 2001/02 almost half of the Development Programme (45%) comprised transfer schemes (Transfer schemes are developed by RHAs on land transferred from NIHE ownership); in 2002/03 around 24% of the Development Programme comprised NIHE transfer schemes; and in 2003/04 this rose to 25% of the Programme or 374 units. This year transfer schemes are programmed to deliver 37% of the social housing development programme, or 574 units. Transfer schemes represented an average of 33% of physical starts achieved in the past four financial years.
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| 34 | 120 | A considerable amount of research has in fact been carried out, and successive annual Home Energy reports show the improvements in levels of insulation. The 2001 House Condition Survey (HCS) shows substantial progress and it is expected that the HCS interim survey in 2005 will show further progress as a result of the impact of the Warm Homes Scheme, NIHE grant schemes, cash-back schemes and owner occupiers' own expenditure. Most NIHE properties are already insulated.
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