Grants to tackle unfit housing axed

Published 21 May 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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Housing grants slashed by £1million

Thousands of people in Fermanagh are being forced to continue living in homes deemed unfit for human habitation because of a massive slump in the Housing Executive"s budget.

The grants scheme which sought to tackle the problem by providing money to replace or improve properties lacking basic amenities such as a bathroom have been axed.

Fermanagh has the highest proportion of unfit houses anywhere in Northern Ireland. Over the past two years the Executive has approved 1,257 grant applications in the county and paid out almost £6.8 million to home owners to help them bring their properties up to standard.

However, the most recent survey indicated that the level of housing unfitness in Fermanagh was over seven per cent, more than double the Northern Ireland average.

At one time over 20 per cent of homes in Fermanagh were unfit and the grant scheme was seen as the major weapon in tackling the problem. However, the Executive relies on the sales of houses to its tenants for much of its income.

As its chief executive, Paddy McIntyre, explained: 'We estimate that sales will bring in £6 million this year compared to over £100 million two years ago. Consequently money which had previously funded housing programmes and the Private Sector Grants Scheme is no longer available.'

'This comes at a time when there are huge pressures on housing. There needs to be an accelerated new social housing programme. The housing needs of vulnerable people must be met and there is a continuing need to improve housing conditions,' he stated.

'This has been a tough budget to allocate and difficult decisions have had to be taken. The Housing Executive"s focus has been to prioritise resources to those people and places in greatest need,' he added.

With over 40,000 people on the waiting list for an Executive home the Minister for Social Development, Margaret Ritchie, has made new social housing her top priority.

Mr. McIntyre said: 'The Housing Executive will concentrate its capital funding on meeting this increasing need.'

So £157.25 million has been allocated to building 1,750 new social homes this year.

Mr. McIntyre said £20.25 million has been made available for the Grants Scheme this year.

'It is necessary to significantly curtail grants and we expect to issue 2,000 approvals this year compared to over 7,000 normally. In the absence of more funding, this is unavoidable,' he stated.

Some grants will continue to operate normally including those for installing disabled facilities and carrying out mandatory repairs.

Everyone who has had their application approved will receive their grant but applications which have been submitted to the Executive and are still awaiting approval are unlikely to be approved unless sufficient funds become available.

'We expect that applications for Discretionary Grants including renovation grants, replacement grants, home repair assistance grants, living over the shop grants and houses in multiple occupation grants may only be approved in exceptional circumstances,' he stressed.

'We do not want to raise expectations about the availability of grants or have people incur costs unnecessarily and therefore it is not appropriate to continue to accept any new Preliminary Enquiries. We will be writing to those who have already submitted Preliminary Enquiry forms,' Mr. McIntyre added.

He had some assurances for Executive tenants.

'The Housing Executive will continue to fund its day-to-day maintenance service. More than 93,000 tenants will see this service protected in line with their conditions of tenancy. This represents our on-going commitment to maintaining a high quality stock,' he said.

However: 'Full scale improvement schemes not already on site have been deferred until capital proceeds from house and land sales recover. This is likely to affect around 850 Housing Executive homes this year.

'Around 4,600 Housing Executive tenants will see work go ahead this year for external repairs or to replace inefficient heating systems or kitchens. Although the number of planned schemes has had to be scaled back it may become possible to start other schemes later in the year,' he said.

And the number of Executive homes being specially adapted for disabled tenants is being slashed.

'Work on homes which are readily adaptable (e.g. showers, heating and lifts) will proceed. However, funding for major extensions to Housing Executive homes will limit the number which can proceed this year. As it stands we expect to do 30 major extensions against a higher possible demand for around 200,' stated Mr. McIntyre.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 21 May 09

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