The sitting begun and suspended on Monday 25 September 2000 was resumed at 10.30 am (Mr Speaker in the Chair).

Housing

 

Dr McDonnell:

I beg to move

That this Assembly notes with concern the growing crisis in the availability of affordable housing and urges the Minister for Social Development to bring forward proposals to address this issue.

I wish to thank all those Members who have gathered here this morning. We probably all have other things to do. Nevertheless, I feel - and I know others will agree - that this issue is serious and important enough for us to concentrate some time on it. I hope we can formulate an approach, or suggest to the Minister that we do so, that will find a solution to an impending crisis.

There are many reasons for proposing this motion today. There is the simple reason of the need for social justice, fair play and decency in a civilised society. There are health reasons. People need decent housing, otherwise their health can be adversely affected. One reason we perhaps do not often think of is that inadequate housing availability will, soon be a threat to our economic development if we do not watch out and pay appropriate attention.

In the short time available to me I shall attempt to cover some of the issues involved. I have no doubt that others around the Chamber will want to touch on many other aspects. We could not hope today to get to grips with all the dimensions, but I should like to think that we can at least highlight the issues and, with the assistance of the Minister, revisit the subject in the not too distant future.

I should like to pick up briefly on the economic implications. As I said earlier, a lack of affordable housing, whether to buy or to rent, is a major threat to our long-term prosperity. While my remarks may be unduly influenced by my experiences in south Belfast, I believe that the issue will raise its head in the north, east and west of the city before long. Farther down the road, provincial towns will be equally affected. There is a host of statistics, graphs and projections, but these mean little to the individual or family without a home or roof over its head. People who need a starter home do not know where to begin to find it.

I shall very simply relate my experience of my own neighbourhood. Around the Ormeau health centre, where I have worked for 21 years, the cheapest starter homes went six years ago for between £10,000 and £15,000. It seems crazy by today's standards, for these same houses now sell for between £110,000 and £115,000. There may have been special circumstances, and prices may have been badly deflated because of social unrest and other aspects of our troubles at the time. Nevertheless, six years ago, people of very humble, limited means were able to secure a roof over their heads. Today that is not possible unless one has an income between £25,000 and £30,000 - something very few people have. Every time house prices rise by £1,000, more people fall through the affordability floor for starter homes.

As I said earlier, we have the beginnings of a housing crisis. How it pans out in the long term depends on how we handle it from here. We must use very mechanism available to us to support home ownership and provide value-for-money rented accommodation.

In too many cases of purchasing starter homes, the mortgages are too tight for the salaries being earned. Given the cost of housing, we are rapidly moving towards lifelong mortgages - perhaps spread over 30, 35 or 40 years - instead of 20-year mortgages. Lenders were burnt by negative equity in the south-east of England 10 years ago. Lending is tight, but it is tightest at the bottom end of the market. It is not too difficult, once one is on the ladder, to move up or sideways or to change areas because one has a stake in the market. The great difficulty is for those who are not on the bottom rung. Lenders will normally allow three times one's salary plus one's spouse's salary once. To get a starter home now needs a basic salary of around £25,000. Far too many people do not come near these salary levels.

There are schemes for supporting low-cost home ownership. The Minister needs to instruct his Department to carry out the necessary research and to revamp some of these schemes. For too long - certainly over my lifetime - the Housing Executive has baled everybody out. It has been a tremendous success over the past 30 years. However, its budget has been squeezed, and it is no longer the organisation that it was. It no longer has the money, the stock of houses or the clout necessary to provide homes.

Members could look at a whole array of issues, aside from the private sector. We could look at increasing the Housing Executive's housing stock and the public and private rental sectors. We may want to generate private rental housing or create social landlords so that houses can be rented - not necessarily from the Housing Executive. The rising cost of land and sites is pushing up house prices. It is not the cost of cement, mortar, wood or glass. The cost of a site has increased tenfold in the last few years.

Equally, we must look at the implications and impact of the sale of around 80,000 Housing Executive houses in the last number of years. We need to consider the impact of that on housing and housing conditions and whether it was a good or bad thing. I am not sure, but I know that those who were able to buy a home at a discount from the Housing Executive felt good about it.

However, I am not sure what impact the reduction has had on the housing stock and deprivation or about the knock-on effect on those who do not have a home. Only the best houses were sold, leaving the Housing Executive with its worst houses in the worst areas and in the most difficult circumstances.

The Minister and his Department should also look at the whole array of part-purchase/part-rent schemes. There is opportunity for tremendous development there, as the schemes contain an array of strategies.

There is conventional shared ownership that allows people partly to buy and partly to rent a home. The main stake or share of the home rests with a social landlord such as the Housing Executive or a housing association. Over time, people may increase the share of their ownership as their circumstances improve. There is also a do-it-yourself shared ownership system that lets people select a home on the private market and then part own and part rent it with a landlord taking a similar stake in it.

The Home Buy scheme that exists in the United Kingdom allows people to buy homes with a low-cost loan, which is repayable when the house is sold. For example, if somebody lends you 25% of the cost of your house, he will get 25% of its price when you sell it.

The cash incentive scheme has worked very well in the South of Ireland. Local authorities offer cash to tenants to help them to buy into the private market. I am not up to date with the scheme, but I am aware that there are grants of £3,000, £4,000 or £5,000 available to first-time buyers.

There is an array of schemes that we need to explore. My point in moving this motion this morning is that we have become a bit complacent. There is more that we might be able to do, and perhaps we should start thinking about it now. Certainly the Executive, drawn from the Assembly, should do all in its power to provide extra support for people on the threshold of homeownership. We should be doing what we can to reduce the barriers that exist for people at the bottom rung of the ladder and help them secure a mortgage and support them in repaying the mortgage interest when they fall into difficulties. I am not suggesting that we do that on a grand scale; I am suggesting that we give them critical support.

We have to be looking constantly for ways to improve the quality of housing. My particular interest in the Assembly is on the enterprise, trade and investment side. It strikes me that if we do not have homes for people in the city of Belfast, we do not need jobs because people will not be able to afford to live there. The economic developments that are coming, such as call centres, are not paying £30,000 per year to enable people to afford their homes. We will end up with the economy going very well, but no houses for people to live in. People will then have to live 20 or 30 miles away, causing a two-or three-hour traffic gridlock in the mornings and evenings as people try to get to and from home.

There are other aspects of this issue that I could discuss, but I know that others wish to comment. I urge the Minister to set up a task force to get the necessary wheels in motion and produce some quality research on what is affordable. There is some excellent research available in both the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. I recommend the NESF report number 18 'Social and Affordable Housing and Accommodation: Building the Future'. There is an array of publications and reports in the United Kingdom and, although many of them are written from the perspective of the mortgage lender in the United Kingdom, there is still a lot of information there.

There are key aspects of the research that I want dealt with - for example, an assessment of where we have an affordability problem. Is it just a localised issue in parts of Belfast or is it becoming a more widespread phenomenon?

10.45 am

To what extent is land availability driving prices upwards? How successful has co-ownership been in addressing the issue of affordability? As I mentioned earlier, there are a number of co-ownership schemes as well as 80,000 dwellings that previously belonged to the Housing Executive. What has happened to these houses? Have the people who bought them been able to secure them? Are they contributing to housing needs?

Research should also focus on the impact of the private-apartment market. In Laganside this is largely investment driven, and that has an impact on house prices. A lot of the apartments that have been developed in Laganside are lying vacant. It is cheaper and easier for the owners to buy them, leave them sitting and allow capital gains to bring them profit rather than rent them out.

There are a number of other important issues in terms of macroeconomics. What are the elements? Is the lowest income bracket too low? Are our interest rates too high? Is this an unemployment issue? Is this issue critical for those who are unemployed rather than for those who are on a low wage?

There is also the debate about green-field and brown-field sites. I do not wish to pre-empt decisions, but we had a debate yesterday about the shipyard and its implications. Some land that has not been used for shipbuilding has now been made available. Titanic Park and the Odyssey project have been developed as well as some housing near to the Odyssey project. Is there an opportunity for social housing to be developed on some of the released shipyard land? We also need to consider what the impact of that would be on inner east Belfast.

Last, but not least, it is time for our research to take a strategic view of the long-term role of the Housing Executive. What do we expect this organisation to be doing in the next 10-to 15 years

In summary, I urge the Minister to establish a research team as quickly as possible to investigate these critical issues. We need to ensure that problems are tackled from every angle. Perhaps it is possible to consider longer and slightly cheaper mortgages. We also need to consider whether it would be reasonable to give grants to enable first-time buyers to get on to the home-ownership ladder. It may be possible to review the whole strategy, purpose, sense of direction and focus of the Housing Executive and its impact on the rest of the sector. The private-rented sector may have a contribution to make. Again, the matter of brown-field development is crucial. I hope that Belfast can move north and east, rather than south and west. It is a mistake to overdevelop places such as Dunmurry, Carryduff, Dundonald, and Newtownabbey.

Mr Speaker, it would be selfish of me to go on and abuse your good will and the good will of my Colleagues here. I have done my best to open up an issue that is not yet critical but which may become critical. It is a cross-cutting issue affecting health and economic development, and it is also important for decency, equality and social justice. I urge the Minister to deal with some of the issues that I have raised and hope that he will.

Sir John Gorman:

I totally agree with what we have just heard from Dr McDonnell.

It was a most interesting analysis of the situation. As I am sure Members know, I was the chief executive and vice chairman of the Housing Executive for seven years. Dr McDonnell mentioned - rather flatteringly, as, needless to say, one always takes the credit for oneself (or some people do, like me, I am afraid) - that the Housing Executive is one of the Province's success stories. Every statistic that one reads validates that statement. To an extent, we are the victims of our success, and there are two points which emerged from what Dr McDonnell said that I would like to emphasise.

The first is that the quality of our housing stock has gone up immeasurably since the days when housing was the prerogative of councils. Without going back into ancient history, I do not think that anyone could deny that. My second point is that for years the building societies, and in later times the banks, had a self-imposed prohibition on lending in certain areas of the Province. This was called red-lining - a dastardly practice, which meant that mortgages were not made available on property in certain parts of the Province. The leaders got together to ensure that they did not make what they thought might be risky loans.

We broke that down. We called all those building societies together in London and told them that that was a dreadful practice, which, apart from anything else, was sectarian. It was thoroughly against all proper administrative practices. They were asked to please bring it to an end, and they did. The head men were ashamed that such a practice was going on here. Inevitably, that led to a huge demand for mortgages. Housing associations were set up and did a very good job, and the 17 building societies trading in Northern Ireland, such as the Abbey National and the Nationwide, were enabled by an increased allocation of funds from their head offices, mostly in England, to catch up with the drought of mortgages which had been self-inflicted.

That led to Northern Ireland's having the highest proportion of home ownership in the whole of the United Kingdom. I to believe that that is a beneficial thing. It provides a great deal of stability. When was the last time anyone heard the Housing Executive being publicly criticised as a result of one of its allocations? Certainly, no cases have been brought before any part of the judicial system. The Housing Executive has done a great job, not only in building good houses, but in allocating them fairly. I trust that the new arrangements that the Minister is bringing about shortly - I think he has a Green Paper in mind - will be equally satisfactory as regards allocation.

I warn, however, that this is not easy. In this little country of ours, there can be some jobbery going on to secure - as I believe occurred more than a few years ago - a housing allocation which might not be exactly merited on points. It is very important to see that that is corrected.

Mr B Hutchinson:

Does the Member agree that no housing association has appeared before the judiciary in relation to a housing allocation?

Sir John Gorman:

Yes, of course I agree. I am simply saying that sometimes what is taken for granted as being a good, solid, fair system can become corrupted. I am warning that that is a danger.

Several things have happened. The Housing Executive has been denied the right to build those houses that were so attractive in the market because it is unable to lay claim to any part of the lending ability of building societies and banks. Due to what I consider a stupid rule, the Housing Executive, being part of the Government system, has to take account of the public- sector lending and borrowing requirements, and it is not able to go outside to borrow money and obtain funding from the private sector. I suggest to the Minister that it would take the change of one word - a change from "Executive" to "Association". Of course, that would necessitate literally pages and pages of renaming - it is really not just as easy as that.

If there were an organisation called the Northern Ireland Housing Association, it might be able to provide funding for the Housing Executive. In the 1980s building societies and banks lent enormous sums to the Housing Executive, which I was running. For example, Abbey National plc allocated £100 million to its regional manager, and it was only one of 19 associations that were trading. I have explained the background to this. The Nationwide Building Society gave a similar sum. It was not lent to the Housing Executive directly, but it was made available to help private citizens to get mortgages. But they also provided - for example, within that sum of £100 million - sums which were allocated to the rehabilitation, rebuilding and modernising of whole estates. Not only was it a good investment to get the Housing Executive to do it, those houses became more valuable as well.

These are matters that I hope will be dealt with very firmly and quickly. I hope that we will get decisions rather than just the setting-up of a Committee or two, because this is a serious problem that the economy has created. It is no one's fault, although if you were a demonstrator against Capitalism you would say that this is all that Capitalism does. But with all that we have to tackle here, I do not wish to get into questions of Socialism, Capitalism, and so on.

It is necessary to follow some of Dr McDonnell's thoughts to see what can be done to make housing more affordable for those who are in the lowest quartile of the economy - employees with low incomes. Unless we do that, we are going to find that there is an elitist attitude about those houses that were formerly Housing Executive houses, some which are still being rented.

A factor that also creates a good lending situation by the private sector is the quality of our people. Generally, owners who are mortgage payers look after their homes; they are proud of their homes. Tenants are also proud of the homes that they rent. If you were to go around the Province today you would see that. In my years of running the Housing Executive, every Minister was saying to me "What is your problem with housing? Look at those lovely houses in Downpatrick, in Banbridge. Look at those lovely estates all over Poleglass - they are a model." I used to reply "You are only seeing the show houses that are replacing the dreadful ones which those people have moved from." But people look after them; they are proud them. The fact that people are now proud of the houses they live in must make a huge contribution to the way in which they live. The head of the household has some authority over those who live with him because he is the one paying the rent; he is the one who is in charge.

As Dr McDonnell said, all of these things have a social benefit that we can be proud of. That has created a very fine reputation for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and, indeed, the private landlords.

11.00 am

Mr S Wilson:

I congratulate Dr McDonnell on bringing this issue before the Assembly. I do not want to go into the background to this problem, but we are all aware of the pressures that our constituents are facing, especially those starting off on the housing ladder. The statistics bear that out. House prices increased by 8·3% across the Province in the first quarter of this year. However, as Dr McDonnell said, that increase does not apply Province-wide. House prices increased by 1·3% in areas such as Fermanagh and south Tyrone and by 18% in Craigavon, Armagh and parts of Belfast.

This is indicative of what is happening for first-time buyers. They are now paying, on average, £58,000, and 13·8% of their income goes on housing costs. When the Housing Executive set rents in the regulated sector it reckoned that approximately 10·2% of an average income was a reasonable figure. People who wish to become homeowners are finding that the burden of homeownership is much more significant than it ought to be if we take the kind of benchmark used in the public housing sector.

Therefore there is a problem, and it has hit hardest in the areas - and I am speaking from a Belfast experience - where people traditionally would have gone as first-time homebuyers. In the area in which I live you could have bought a house for £16,000 three years ago. Now you would be lucky to get one for less than £50,000. That was the area where most people came to start house buying, but those doors are closed to many people now.

At the same time the number of houses being built for rent in the public sector has dropped significantly. Statistics that I looked at this morning showed that 3,200 houses were built for rental 15 years ago. Last year the figure was less than half of that, so there is not even the safety valve that there used to be for people who could not get a house to purchase. Fifteen years ago they could at least have gone into the public rented sector.

We have to look at the reasons for this before we can look at possible policies. There is no doubt that as in any area of the world that experiences sustained economic growth, there is going to be a consequence for Northern Ireland. Economic growth is not something for which there is no price to pay. Some people will pay a price. Whether it is in the south-east of England or Northern Ireland, economic growth tends to push up the demand for land for different reasons - for example, homes are needed because workers are moving into this area - and, therefore, the price of houses. The simple law of economics tells us that. I hope that we do not take the view that public policy can resolve all of these problems. I am not sure that it can.

There are conflicts with an objective to create more employment and, thus, better income conditions because of the effect it will have on house prices. The second thing is - and Dr McDonnell referred to this, although he probably knows about it from personal experience - the price of land for housing. I am sure he has felt the ire of the Malone Road Residents' Association as a result of his involvement in selling some land which went for apartment development. I am making this as a side comment simply because it illustrates the problem. I do not fault people who own property; I do not fault them for selling it, getting a good price for it and making a profit. However, the consequence of that is that if somebody is paying £400,000 for a piece of land, as opposed to £200,000, the price of the properties which go on that land is going to be higher.

I do not think it is possible for public policy to interfere with the market, nor do I think it would be correct for public policy to interfere with the market to the extent that people who own property are told "You cannot sell this for more than a certain amount". But if you take that hands-off approach, there will be consequences.

Another reason is that the interest rates in the Irish Republic are now negative in real terms because it is involved with the Euro and the European Central Bank now controls interest rates. Although the economy there is booming, the two strongest economies in Europe are not; they want to have low interest rates, and because the Irish Republic is tied to that, money can be borrowed at negative rates of interest. If you want a case study on why the single currency cannot work and why more economic integration in Europe cannot work, just look at the conflict between European economic and monetary policy and what is happening in the Republic, and this has spillover effects for us.

Dr McDonnell mentioned what was happening in Laganside. A great deal of the property inflation there is driven by money coming from the Republic and finding a home in Northern Ireland. Speculators are operating on the basis that property prices here are still low enough for them to make money.

The other problem is that, rightly or wrongly, there have been restrictions on land releases, especially in the Greater Belfast area. Until we sort out planning policy for the metropolitan area, we are going to have to live with the consequences. There were many reasons for that, and the important thing is that public policy cannot deal with all of them.

Dr McDonnell also mentioned task forces - we seem to be setting task forces up for everything, and I am wary about doing that. Many of the schemes which he mentioned in his speech are nothing to do with the Department for Social Development. They are financial schemes, and it is up to the banks, the mortgage lenders and the building societies to deal with them. There are some policies that the Department for Social Development, the Department for Regional Development and the Department of the Environment could look at. People will have to accept, whether they like it or not, that a sizeable proportion of people will not be able to afford to get on the housing ladder, so we must look at the number of houses which are being built for rent. We cannot get away from that. Should we take up Sir John Gorman's suggestion and allow the Housing Executive to get back into the house-building market? The law could be changed to allow it to borrow also. Those are matters that we have to look at.

Secondly, in Northern Ireland there are presently 25,000 houses in the public sector which are vacant and unfit for habitation, and in the private rented sector there are as many again which are vacant and fit for habitation, but for whatever reason have not been let. There are various schemes - self-help schemes and the work of Habitat community - aiming at bringing these houses back in to use. There is a sizeable stock there, which we need to find a way of mobilising. I am sure that all of us, during our constituency work, have found landlords who hold on to privately owned houses, will not rent them out and allow them to go to rack and ruin. I do not know how many houses in the private sector fall into that category. Certainly if there were greater powers for those houses to be taken over, either by housing associations or by the Housing Executive, and to be brought back into use, it would deal, first, with the social problem for those who live beside them - very often they are used as glue-sniffing dens, and so on - and, secondly, with the housing problem. We have to look at the vesting powers which are available to do that, but there must also be the will to do that.

Thirdly, and I have found this in my area, where the Housing Executive, or any public body, makes a swath of land available for house building, part of that should be set aside for affordable housing. Whether that is reflected in the price which a purchaser pays for it, or whether it is reflected in the services which are put on the site, free of charge, by some public body, I do not really care. When there was redevelopment in my area, many homeowners were going to lose their houses. We persuaded the Housing Executive, where the new houses were being built, to set aside part of two sites. The developer who took those sites for private development had to build houses at a ceiling of £40,000. Those were then made available to people who were being displaced in the redevelopment area. Schemes such as that - and they may well be costly - help to alleviate the problems of displaced people in redevelopment areas and also provide some affordable housing. Of course, the big benefit is that you then get a social mix.

The irony of what is happening in Belfast is that the inner city that used to be a public-sector housing ghetto is now becoming a yuppie land. There has been a total reversal. Either of those two imbalances, I believe, happen to be bad socially.

Mr Speaker:

May I ask the Member to bring his remarks to a close. A number of other Members wish to contribute to the debate.

Mr S Wilson:

My final point is about planning issues. Planners ought to think more when they are granting planning permission; this is the Department for Regional Development's responsibility. They ought to lay down certain conditions as to the mix of houses. If, for example, you are going to approve greenfield applications, there ought to be conditions attached which say that the site is to be used for affordable housing.

Those are some of the things which can be done as far as public policy is concerned. Alasdair McDonnell's speech demonstrated that there is no easy answer to the problem, but we must chip away at it to ensure that home ownership is not just a dream for some people in our society.

Ms Gildernew:

Go raibh maith agat. I also welcome the debate today on the availability of affordable housing, given the close relationship between the quality of the homes we live in and our health and general well-being. However, the lack of social housing should be the central concern in this debate, because this has lead to the crisis in the housing market.

Successive British Governments have systematically reduced public expenditure on housing. This, coupled with the mass sell-off of more than 80,000 Housing Executive dwellings, has left us in the situation we are in today.

11.15 am

While we welcome the opportunity given to tenants to purchase their homes, we stress the need to replace these homes. For many people buying a home is not a feasible option, and a quantity of good-quality social housing will always be required.

The lack of new starts in the social housing program should be our main concern. We cannot focus exclusively on affordable private new builds unless we address the crisis facing the social housing market, a crisis that will only worsen in the future if the proposed rent increases go ahead. Higher rents will mean that people who can buy their homes will do so and reduce the amount of social housing available. This will push up waiting lists, especially in Derry and Belfast. It is already difficult for the unemployed to buy a home, given that they cannot get mortgages, so they will be relying on an increasingly depleted social housing stock.

A University of Ulster study estimated that in the past 10 years a shortfall of 5,000 social housing units has built up. We need at least 2,100 new units to be built per annum, and that excludes the shortfall that already exists. The waiting list for social housing has risen dramatically, and the number of applicants in urgent need has increased by 27% since 1990.

We also need investment in the improvement programme, an allocation of funds to plan comprehensive maintenance and to eradicate levels of unfitness. There are still unacceptably high levels of unfitness in the Housing Executive stock, especially in rural areas and worst of all in my constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone. There is still a high correlation between age and unfitness, again especially in rural areas, and there has been no reduction in the urban unfitness that has been caused by stock getting older and needing more maintenance. Many houses still have no central heating, something that most of us take for granted.

In the areas of greatest need, such as west and north Belfast, there is a problem which has not been tackled by either the Housing Executive or the housing associations - territorial claims to land and houses on the Unionist side of the peace wall. The situation is one that defies belief. Homes are being pulled down one side because of lack of demand while on the other side families can wait for up to three years for a home. This, coupled with large tracts of derelict land such as the Girdwood Barracks site, which would be ideal for development results in unacceptable levels of overcrowding and long waiting lists.

Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 placed new duties on the Housing Executive to promote equality of opportunity and good community relations and to put the equality issue at the centre of policy making. Surely the Nationalist community in north Belfast is entitled to equality of access to housing. Targeting social need obligations should surely be the deciding factor here, not fear of losing territory. I was interested to hear Sammy Wilson say that he did not want to go into history. Given the discrimination of the past, if the problem of accessible housing is not tackled now, Catholics will again be forced to take action as my family did in Caledon more than 30 years ago.

Homelessness is also a major cause for concern. According to Shelter, some 30,000 people in the Six Counties are without a home. Homelessness is rising rapidly, particularly among people aged between 16 and 25. Current estimates reveal that 50% of all single homeless people are under 25 years of age, and 20% are aged 18 and under. This is totally unacceptable, and we are going to have to deal with this matter properly in order to reduce the number of homeless people drastically. We need to set up a forum to bring together the Housing Executive, housing associations and interested bodies such as the Simon Community and Shelter to deal with this problem in an intelligent and imaginative manner. Surely these statistics prove that the island of 100,000 welcomes is becoming more and more a thing of the past.

Given the strong relationship between the housing market and the overall economy of the Six Counties, and after the failure of successive British Governments to finance the housing programme adequately, relying as they did on private sector activities, we now have a chance to put local alternatives in place. We have to get it right. We must be driven bytargeting social need and the equality agenda, and new-build schemes should, therefore, be based on assessed needs rather than financial constraints.

In this way unfitness, homelessness and overcrowding can be eradicated and affordable housing can be made accessible to all. Go raibh míle maith agat.

Mr Boyd:

According to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's Annual Report, there are 44,000 unfit properties across Northern Ireland, with a large number in rural areas. There are currently 14,000 Housing Executive homes with no central heating, while 10,000 houses need major improvements to modernise them. Some 23,000 people are still waiting to be allocated a Housing Executive property, and more than half of these are in urgent need of housing. Northern Ireland's ageing population is another key factor. Over the past four years the number of elderly and disabled people needing adaptations has risen from 600 to 2,000.

Every citizen in Northern Ireland has the right to a decent roof over his or her head. It is rather disappointing that we have heard today from one quarter about one particular section of the community. Housing needs exist right across the board and everywhere suffers, including many working-class Protestant areas. Housing is one of the most important issues that elected representatives are called on to deal with in their constituencies. There is a need to be proactive and to allocate the necessary resources to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's district offices to enable necessary repairs to be carried out on unoccupied properties, allowing them to be allocated to tenants. There are far too many blocked-up properties that should be repaired as a priority or demolished. For example, in my constituency of South Antrim there are blocked up properties in parts of Newtownabbey, Ballyclare and Antrim that are still waiting, after several years, for. This is due to the lack of funding. These properties could otherwise have been allocated to tenants. The process for demolition and repairs is unacceptably long, and more authority needs to be delegated to the local district managers so that delays can be avoided.

In 1998, in a part of New Mossley in Newtownabbey, we lobbied and were able to arrange a visit by senior officials from the Housing Executive. They were able to see for themselves the chronic conditions that tenants had to endure because of the large number of unoccupied properties that were due to be demolished. This was only achieved after a long-drawn-out bureaucratic process. On the day of the visit, water was gushing down from burst pipes. The properties had not been secured, yet people were expected to live beside them. Examples such as this can be found throughout Northern Ireland.

The recent Housing Executive announcement about cutbacks in its housing budget is worrying. It is therefore critical to reduce the amount of bureaucracy surrounding demolition, repair, improvements and the allocation of grants.

It is totally unacceptable for some quarters to suggest a rent increase of 2% above inflation. This cannot be justified when so many properties are in need of repairs and improvements. The people who would be most affected by a large rent increase are those on low incomes. We have a moral obligation to protect those who are less well off in society, and I would support a rent freeze until a housing review has been completed. Rents have already gone above the rate of inflation in the past few years while funding allocated to the Housing Executive has been reduced. It is wrong to expect tenants, particularly when so many are on low incomes, to continue to make up the shortfall through spiralling rent increases. There is an ongoing requirement for 2,100 units of social housing per annum to ensure that the level of urgent need does not increase.

There continues to be an ongoing need for investment at current levels in the improvement programme to enable it to be completed over the next five years. There is also an increasing need for funding to meet the rising demand for adaptations for people with disabilities. The housing budget must not be reduced further, as any decline in housing standards will have a direct and adverse effect on the level of health care, with further strains being put on that budget allocation.

Waiting lists for housing continue to grow considerably, with the number of applicants at March 1999 totalling 23,000. Of the waiting list total, 41% are single people and 22% are elderly people - a total of 63%. I visited the Simon Community unit in Larne two weeks ago, and was concerned to learn that the number of people presenting themselves to the charity as homeless had risen from 3,800 to over 4,000 in the past year. The majority were aged 25 and under. It is particularly worrying that the proportion of 16-to 18-year-olds reporting as homeless is at an all-time high.

In Northern Ireland there is a shortage of suitable, affordable and accessible accommodation, and this needs to be addressed urgently. Owner occupation in Northern Ireland currently stands at 70%. House prices here are rising by approximately 8% per annum, and many areas in Northern Ireland are now on a par with several regions in the rest of the United Kingdom.

However, the average wage in Northern Ireland is approximately £2,000 less than the UK average. An increasing number of home owners are falling behind with their payments because of spiralling house prices. The number of writs and summonses issued for mortgage arrears has increased by almost 50% between 1997 and 1998. Many first-time buyers are now struggling to get on the house-buying ladder. With more than 100 lenders offering some 4,000 mortgage products, many buyers are attracted by low interest rates and "cashbacks" in the first few years of the mortgage, only to be hit later by large monthly payment increases, which many cannot afford to meet.

Legislation must be strengthened to raise awareness of consumers' rights. Solicitors' costs, for example, must be brought into line with those in the rest of the United Kingdom. Increased advertising of codes of practice will help consumer awareness. Much legislation is already in place, such as the Estate Agents Act 1979 and the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991. There is also an ombudsman and a code of practice for lenders. However, only a relatively small number of people actually seek legal redress. For example, the Estate Agents Act requires that estate agents indicate their fees in writing before accepting instructions. However, in a recent survey by the General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, 11% of people selling their homes said that they did not receive any quotes, and only 59% said that they had received written quotes. It is clear that legal obligations are not always being enforced, and this must be addressed.

Many issues relating to housing matters are being raised today, and I share the concern at the growing crisis regarding the availability of affordable housing. I therefore support the motion.

Mr Tierney:

I support the motion, and I commend Alasdair McDonnell for bringing it before the House. In the Social Development Committee's discussions, this matter has taken up more time than most other issues because of its urgency and the needs that exist in different areas. It is also an ongoing topic for discussion and debate in most council chambers. For the past couple of years councils in my constituency of Foyle have been saying that there is a crisis situation.

I believe that the way to achieve affordable social housing is to give proper funding to the Housing Executive. The Minister addressed the last meeting of our Committee, and I know that he shares our views and has given the matter a high priority. We welcome that. The former Minister also gave it a high priority.

One of the problems in Foyle is that there has been a waiting list of 1,600 for over 10 years. The money allocated to the Housing Executive and to housing associations is not even making a dent in that. If we continue with the current budget, then it will continue not to make a dent. We have to look at this issue more seriously, as the proposer of the motion has said, and make the proper funding available.

The last announcement concerning the housing budget, and the cuts, was condemned by my Committee, and it asked for the budget to be increased. It was then told that there would be an increase, but the increase was on the Scheme for the Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings (SPED) and adaptations. Although that was welcomed and unanimously supported by the Committee, it could be argued that the money allocated to SPED should come directly from the Northern Ireland Office and not from the Housing Executive budget. I am delighted that the Minister agreed with the Committee and said, in relation to the recent problems on the Shankill Road, that he would be making the case that the money should come directly from the Northern Ireland Office and should not eat into the housing budget.

As for the adaptations, an argument could be made that this money should come out of the health budget, because adaptations are carried out on medical advice and for the disabled.

11.30 am

In the Derry area, the number of houses that have been sold to Housing Executive tenants has increased. However, as my Colleague Mr Danny O'Connor pointed out at a Committee meeting, we are getting to the stage where that will slowly but surely stop, and the reason is that the remaining housing stock is in such poor condition that it is impossible to imagine anyone purchasing it. If enough money and grants were to be made available for the refurbishment of these houses to the proper standard, people would then have the chance of buying their own homes.

For a number of years we have been fighting to try to get the Housing Executive in Derry to spend money on refurbishment in the worst parts of the Foyle area. A refurbishment scheme was recently carried out in the Bogside, and it was widely welcomed, but we fought for it for 10 years. I raise this matter because I firmly believe that the longer refurbishment is postponed, the more it will cost in the long run.

During the course of an Adjournment debate I highlighted an example of the problems we face in the Foyle area. Homeless people and one-parent families are presenting themselves to the Housing Executive and being told that it could be up to a year and a half before they can be housed, and in some cases there is no accommodation at all for them and they have to depend on friends and relatives to put them up. This is totally unacceptable, and unless we tackle the new-build situation, and tackle it quickly, the problem will increase.

In my area, if you were to present yourself to the Housing Executive as a normal applicant, the Housing Executive, if it was being honest, would tell you that unless you had priority status or were an A1 homeless person, they would probably not even consider you.

I believe that the way to provide affordable social housing is to give proper funding to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and to the housing associations, so that they can get on with the new build. That, in turn, will solve the problem. I accept what the proposer said - there is a role for the private sector. Dr McDonnell made a number of points, some of which have not yet been discussed by the Committee, and we will consider them.

Various organisations have suggested a number of schemes in an attempt to get affordable, social housing. You have to congratulate them on their efforts. However, we now have to re-examine those schemes, as Dr McDonnell says, to see if there is a better scheme for affordable social housing.

Finally, I make the point again that I am convinced that the way to get affordable and proper social housing is to give appropriate funding to the Housing Executive and to the housing associations, which I know the Minister totally supports. I welcome the debate and the points coming to the Committee from the proposer.

Mr Shannon:

This is an issue that confronts us all the time in our advice centres. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the matter and to highlight some of our concerns as elective representatives.

For many years property prices in Northern Ireland have remained a fraction of those in other parts of the United Kingdom. This has meant that it has been relatively easy for individuals and families to safely secure the style and quality of housing which they have sought over the years. While this resulted in the standard of living being substantially higher than on the mainland, it also created the false image, which has come home to roost today, that Northern Ireland was a relatively wealthy country. It was an image which I dare say was going to be exposed at some time. Perhaps this housing debate is an opportunity to expose it.

This phenomenon has been manifested through the frightening rise in house prices throughout Northern Ireland over a number of years. Some Members have spoken about the price increases and the amount of money it now costs to buy a house in Northern Ireland. The issue has been well illustrated. House prices are twice as high as they were 10 years ago. In some cases they are even higher.

In the same period the average wage has not seen the same increase, and one does not need to be an accountant to work out that the sums will not add up in today's Northern Ireland. Events in the property market mean that many people face great hardship in buying a house. Ten years ago it would not have been a problem. Some people today cannot afford to purchase a house at all.

This has had a number of serious social and economic implications for society. First, the standard of living has fallen, and it will continue to do so when so much of a person's income is tied up in paying for a house. Secondly, the amount of debt has increased for those who have purchased property in the past five years, and I suspect that trend will continue. This in turn has put more personal pressure on individuals and families with restricted free cash. Recently, a survey was carried out across the country illustrating young people's concerns about the cost of buying a house. The majority of respondents stated they were worried that they would not be able to survive financially if they were to buy a house, and that they would be robbed of their social lives.

Life is not just about paying the mortgage. Life has to be a little bit more than that, and I think we have to look at the wider picture as well. At one time, young people dreamed of buying their own house, setting up their own home, and becoming independent. Today's house prices severely restrict the ability of the young - especially first-time buyers - to make the move out of the family home. More and more young people remain in the family home and it is not uncommon for people in their late twenties and early thirties to live in their parents' house.

On a broader social issue, the ongoing rise in house prices threatens to disrupt the distribution of wealth among the local population. In the past, society in Northern Ireland has been very egalitarian. There have not been the areas of extreme poverty, or extreme wealth, found in countries such as the Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa. While we do not have slums like those in Dublin, there are many areas of social deprivation across the Province.

For example, Strangford has undergone a 10.9 per cent rise in house prices. It is assumed that this is an indicator of an affluent area, but that is not necessarily the case. There are also large pockets of need. Many people cannot and, perhaps never will be able to, buy their own houses.

Deprivation is not exclusive to one side of the community. It is as widespread in our community, among the people of Ards borough and the Strangford constituency, as it is in other areas of the Province. We share the same problems, including single parents, large families, unemployment, lack of job prospects, low levels of car ownership and dependency on benefits. These difficulties are not exclusive to us but extend across the community. We all represent areas with these problems. I am aggrieved that some representatives think that only one part of the community has been subject to these factors. The Protestant or Unionist community has been subject to these problems in the same way as other parts of the community have. Other Members can agree to that.

Deprivation exists in estates in Ards town and in the villages of the Ards peninsula, where people have little or no prospects and cannot get houses. These are important issues. Combating deprivation and preventing its growth should be the primary concern of any legislator. Northern Ireland is no different from anywhere else. We must do everything we can to ensure that housing remains within the grasp of everyone if we are to prevent the gap between rich and poor from growing to the same degree as it has done among our neighbours in the South.

I will highlight a point about greenfield sites that was mentioned earlier by a Member. When land becomes available, large developers usually buy the sites. Housing associations also want to buy the land but they are outbid. Land is being provided only for those who wish to buy houses and not for people who want to live in rented accommodation or social housing. Provision must be made to alleviate this. The members of Ards Borough Council, including myself, are among the many who have lobbied to ensure that land is set aside for these purposes in all future developments. It is not enough to provide housing for those who can afford it; there must be housing for those who cannot afford it, that is where social housing plays its part. Failure to provide housing for everyone will inevitably have negative implications throughout society, creating the associated unsociable behaviour that is directly linked to social deprivation.

The future health of society in Northern Ireland does not rest solely with the Minister for Social Development, but I urge the Minister to play his part and to do what he can to address the situation. Today's motion is timely for Northern Ireland.

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