Supporting Communities welcomes the government’s consultation on its proposed programme for government and encourages community and resident groups to weigh in on the priorities expressed.

We are particularly glad to see more social, affordable, and sustainable housing as one of the nine priorities and have set out some of our thoughts on this topic below. We look forward to learning more about the details and funding behind this goal.

As the Independent Tenant Organisation for Northern Ireland, we have heard from social housing tenant representatives on the housing issues that matter most to them.

The Housing Policy Panel and the Central Housing Forum have updated their policy manifestos for 2024. Find them here:

We encourage all community and resident groups to get involved and respond to the consultation.

Here are some of our thoughts that may help groups formulate their responses:

More Housing Now

More social housing is desperately needed throughout Northern Ireland, and the barriers to building must be addressed urgently. These include site constraints, planning regulations, especially in rural areas, and the challenges of providing water, electrical, and sewage connections.

Rising land prices make it increasingly difficult for housing associations to compete for sites with private developers. Proactively using community contacts to identify potential sites where landowners may be willing to sell may be helpful.

We agree with the proposal to enable the Housing Executive to build again – this should be given priority and expedited without delay. In the meantime, other ways to provide housing should be incentivised and acted on, such as community-led housing schemes, purchasing existing homes for the social rented sector and revitalising derelict properties through compulsory purchase or offering improvement grants.

We are concerned that the government has continually missed its rural social new build targets—this issue must stay on the agenda.

We must also explore greater use of mixed tenure schemes to meet a range of housing needs and make them more economically viable for example, the cost rental option in the Republic of Ireland. This type of mixed tenure helps provide the conditions for more sustainable and thriving communities.

Put Tenants First

The stated commitment to the Supporting People programme is welcome to support tenancies and ensure that social housing works for those most in need.

Social tenants must also be empowered and recognised as integral to driving service improvements and standards for their landlords. They should be encouraged to take an active role in decisions affecting their homes and lives. Updating and strengthening the Tenant Participation Strategy for NI (2015-20) would help ensure consistency of approach and that housing providers continue to listen to and involve their tenants in making the changes they need to thrive in their homes and communities.

Net Zero Targets

As we build new and revitalise existing homes, we must do so in a way that meets our net zero carbon goals. A new fuel poverty strategy would go a long way to making homes more energy efficient.

New housing developments should maximise renewable energy, e.g., south-facing solar panels, PV panels, and heat pumps and should include carbon offsets in their build.

We should also bolster support for owner-occupiers to enhance their homes to assist in meeting net-zero targets. This means implementing grant schemes and offering incentives to owners that go beyond the warm home scheme.

Conclusion

Proposals such as enabling the Housing Executive to borrow to commence building new homes again, addressing water infrastructure capacity issues, and advancing the housing supply strategy with ambitious targets for new homes in a mixed tenure framework are essential steps forward.

The commitment to reform the private rented sector and retrofit homes for net zero emissions is also encouraging. Still, these measures will require significant funding and resources allocated to them with multi-annual budgets to ensure long-term progress.

We encourage the NI Assembly to move quickly and set tangible targets so we can see exactly how this can positively impact the housing crisis.

Get Involved

An eight-week public consultation process on the draft Programme for Government 2024-2027, 'Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most,' is open now and will end on 4 November 2024.

The Executive is holding a number of consultations events, both in person and online. More information can be found on the NI Executive’s website.

NICVA is also hosting a number of online engagement sessions for voluntary and community sector organisations to provide an overview of the key priorities detailed within the draft programme and hear sector views and feedback – more information on these sessions is available on NICVA’s website.

To respond to the consultation on the draft Programme for Government, please go to: https://www.northernireland.gov.uk/PfG-consultation