As discussed
in last week’s blog we know that there is a huge need for social housing, and
we aren’t building nearly enough to meet that need.
Although a chronic problem particularly in
North & West Belfast, it’s also a problem in many rural communities. The Rural Residents Forum (RRF) is
facilitated by RCN and has representatives from across Northern Ireland. It meets to discuss issues related to the
provision of social housing in rural communities. The RRF has been concerned about the target
for new build social housing in rural areas being missed in four of the last
five years. RRF representatives have been
involved in a series of meetings with housing spokespeople from all political
parties, with Housing Executive staff (including the Chief Executive), with
Housing Associations and with Department for Communities officials trying to get
answers on why the target has been missed.
From these meetings the following issues were identified as making the
development of new build social housing in rural areas more difficult:
· Sites
in smaller towns and villages can be more expensive as landowners are holding
on to try and maximise profits now that the housing market is recovering. The Housing Associations are saying that in
many cases they are being outbid by private developers for sites.
· Sites
in smaller settlements can be harder to access and more expensive to bring
services to. This makes some sites too
expensive for Housing Associations.
· Housing
Associations tell us that, often, they are facing objections to social housing
at planning application stage as other residents don’t want social housing
built beside them.
The upshot of
all this is that the target for new build social housing in rural areas is
being missed and renters are faced with a choice of renting in the private
sector, if those properties are available in their area, or moving to larger
towns where some social housing is still available. The private rented sector has grown
significantly in many rural areas (albeit from a low base) and is often the
only option for people needing housing who can’t afford to buy. There are fewer protections for private
rented sector renters and one of the main problems is that tenants are forced
to move when short term leases end.
Tenants who
opt for the private rented sector are no longer considered in housing need,
they have been housed, so they come off the Housing Executive’s waiting
list. This transfers the provision of
rented housing from the public sector to the private sector. The problem with that is that low income
renters will need help with meeting their housing costs through housing
benefit. So huge amounts of public money
are transferring from the public purse to private landlords through housing
benefit. The alternative is to move to
the towns where social housing may still be available. That leads to smaller towns and villages
losing young families with knock on effects on schools, GP surgeries and
businesses and a “gentrification” of smaller towns and villages.
Issues like
the increase in hospital waiting lists or cuts to school budgets are in the
media constantly but the shortage of social housing isn’t getting the same
coverage. Why is that? In my view
housing is different. Housing and the
land that it sits on are commodities that are traded, and profit extracted from. Why wouldn’t a landowner hang onto a
development site to try and make as much money as possible? There are further steps that could be taken
if the political will existed. Both the
Department for Communities and the Housing Executive have powers to vest land
for social housing. To our knowledge
these powers are rarely used in rural areas.
An uplift in the Housing Association Grant could be introduced to
incentivise Housing Associations to build in rural areas. A Land Value Tax could be introduced which
would prevent speculation on development sites.
These more radical approaches will not happen in the absence of a
Minister who can make these decisions.
That’s little consolation to the families who languish on the waiting
list and whose lives are put on hold.
