The Minister's reply almost answered the question. I want to focus on the so-called dead weight problem. The National Audit Office found that in Great Britain a substantial proportion of young people probably would have found work anyway. Is there comparable research to estimate the scale of dead weight in Northern Ireland's New Deal? If there is, what can be done about the problem?

The Member is correct in that it is easier to run a scheme with well-motivated participants in areas where the labour market is buoyant. However, such a scheme has less impact on participants who are poorly motivated or face multiple barriers to employment. Those are some of the problems that my Department is tackling through the employability and long-term unemployment task forces.

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13.

asked the Minister for Employment and Learning if she will support the proposal to give Carrickfergus "University town" status.

(AQO 1265/01)

I am not aware of any proposal for Carrickfergus to amend its town charter to incorporate the title "University town". However, I assume that the Member will enlighten us.

Although the main campus of the University of Ulster at Jordanstown is on the border of Carrickfergus's boundary, there have been close working relationships between Carrickfergus Borough Council, the local community and the university, and the university's technology unit is located in the Carrickfergus Industrial Centre. Will the Minister actively encourage the University of Ulster at Jordanstown to reach an agreement with the council to ensure that Carrickfergus becomes a university town based on those close links?

I will support continued co-operation, but I ought to speak to the university authorities before committing myself to supporting a particular status for Carrickfergus.

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14.

asked the Minister for Employment and Learning to outline the number of (a) American students; and (b) foreign students who studied at (i) Queen's University, Belfast; and (ii) the University of Ulster in each of the last three years.

(AQO 1268/01)

The total number of American and other foreign students enrolled at Northern Ireland universities over the last three years is as follows: in 1999-2000 there were 1,511; in 2000-01 there were 1,240; and in 2001-02 there were 1,254. The breakdown of figures in the format requested has been placed in the Assembly Library for the Member's information.

I thank the Minister for her factual response. Do the American students receive financial assistance from the education and library boards in Northern Ireland to enable them to study here? Do students from Northern Ireland receive financial assistance to enable them to study in the USA?

I will get back to the Member if I am wrong, but I do not believe that there is any arrangement for students from Northern Ireland to study in America.

I understand that students from the United States pay more to study in Northern Ireland than Northern Irish students. Some Northern Irish students can avail of grants to study in the United States. However, this is a separate issue. Generally, students from Northern Ireland do not receive assistance to study in the United States. Nor, indeed, do students from the United States receive assistance to study here.

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15.

asked the Minister for Employment and Learning how much money has been invested in further and higher education over the past three years.

(AQO 1293/01)

From 1999 to 2002 the budget for further education was £108 million, increasing to £124 million and then to £138 million. From 1999 to 2002 the budget for higher education was £134 million, increasing to £140 million and then to £156 million. The figures for 2001-02 are provisional, and the Department for Employment and Learning will confirm them when its accounts are audited later in the year.

I know that there is not much time left. I thank the Minister for her response. However, on the eve of Adult Learners' Week, how can the Minister reconcile her words of 5 March,

with the closure of the Dundonald outreach centre of Castlereagh College of Further and Higher Education, which will affect the overwhelming majority of its 1,100 enrolled students, 1,800 places and 40 courses - and not least the 250 students from Ballybeen, which is the second largest estate in Northern Ireland and a targeting social need (TSN) area to boot.

I ask the Minister to respond in writing because the time is up.

Social Development

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Question 2 in the name of Rev Robert Coulter has been transferred to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety and will receive a written answer. Questions 4, 9 and 11 in the names of Mr Mick Murphy, Mr Eddie McGrady and Mr Gerry Kelly respectively have been withdrawn and will receive written answers. Question 13 in the name of Mr Mark Robinson has also been withdrawn, but it does not require a written answer.

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1.

asked the Minister for Social Development to provide extra funding for the homeless in view of numbers rising.

(AQO 1298/01)

I fully recognise that the problem of homelessness is increasing. I am determined to address it. In the current financial year funding available to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has allowed an increase of £400,000 to £3·4 million to deal with services specifically for homeless people. In addition, I hope that homeless people will benefit from bids for extra funding made by the Department for Social Development for the years 2003 to 2006. I have no doubt that Members who are interested in homelessness will support those bids.

I am delighted to hear that extra money has been allocated. However, in view of the extra funding that was announced last week by the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, will the Minister now make extra bids to address the specific problem of homelessness?

As I have indicated, homelessness is a significant problem that my Colleagues and I are determined to address. In conjunction with the Housing Executive, other Departments and agencies that are concerned with the issue, the Department for Social Development will continue to examine ways in which it can improve the services that it provides. Clearly, the Department recognised that there are funding implications.

The Member has raised the specific issue in relation to the announcement that was made last week. The money is available by way of loans and is primarily aimed at infrastructure programmes and projects. Regardless of that, we have submitted, and will be submitting, bids for increased funding to deal with services to homeless people and housing generally. The Department recognises the social problems but cannot tackle them alone. However, we will be working hard with others to achieve progress on those important issues.

Homelessness affects every constituency and should concern every Member. What impact will the new housing Bill have on tackling homelessness? When will the new legislation be introduced?

I want to formally put on record my welcome to Mr Weir and thank him for his contribution from the Benches behind me. I congratulate him on the wisdom of his move and wish him many happy years on these Benches - or even other Benches.

It could be said that I have found a home.

Yes. The Member asked about homelessness, but he has found his true home today.

There have been some misguided and spurious comments in the press about the homelessness issue and the new housing Bill from people who should know better. The draft Bill, which has been widely welcomed across the board, will impact on homelessness by redefining homelessness and intentional homelessness, the treatment of persons from abroad and those found guilty of antisocial behaviour. The proposals will not detract from the priority for rehousing presently given to homeless applicants who meet the statutory criteria for assistance under homelessness legislation.

The Member asked about the timetable. The consultation period finished at the end of April. I hope to lay the Bill before the Assembly in June, with a view to it becoming law early next year.

I would point out that - and this is where there has been some misguided comment - legislation itself will not impact significantly on homelessness as social problem. Other means must be explored to do that. I will continue to work with other statutory agencies and Departments, along with the Housing Executive, to do precisely that.

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3.

asked the Minister for Social Development, pursuant to AQO 672/01, what plans he has to counter cases of benefit fraud within the Social Security Agency.

(AQO 1303/01)

The level of social security fraud is totally unacceptable. I am committed to a robust approach to tackling fraud and abuse of the social security system on all fronts. Fraud and abuse are serious problems, but the Social Security Agency's management and staff are tackling them with great determination. The agency has a comprehensive fraud strategy that contains an extensive programme of initiatives designed to ensure that claims entering the system are legitimate; that, once in the system, claims are maintained properly; and that, where fraud and error enter the system, they are detected and appropriate action is taken.

The agency works closely with several other bodies to maximise effectiveness. The approach is paying off, and I plan to continue with it. For example, in the last 12 months, fraud investigations were carried out into nearly 13,000 cases, and the rate of benefit was changed in over 5,500 cases. A total of 753 cases were referred for prosecution or sanction.

How much money does the Department estimate has been lost to benefit fraudsters across Northern Ireland over the last five years? How much does the Department expect to claw back from those criminal elements over the next number of years?

Benefit cheats defraud not only the Government, but their neighbours and communities. The idea seems to exist that benefit fraud causes no pain, but the perpetrators take money from the pockets of the needy. To abuse the benefit system in that way is to steal from the rest of society. Since the agency implemented the strategy to tackle fraud, an additional £9 million has been invested each year to reduce all benefit fraud and errors. As a result, the agency estimates that the target is to recover £15 million of overpayments during the coming three-year period. That includes all categories of overpayments. It is not possible to estimate the amount that is directly attributable to criminal elements. It is estimated that each year an average of £32 million is lost to benefit fraudsters, and that figure is in the public domain.

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5.

asked the Minister for Social Development to specify the number of social housing new build dwellings (a) projected for the years 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002; and (b) whose on-site construction commenced, was completed and made ready for occupation in the same financial year.

(AQO 1271/01)

In 1999-2000, my Department projected the completion of 1,200 new build social housing dwellings, and 1,241 were completed. In 2000-01, the completion of a further 1,200 was projected, and 1,210 were built. In 2001-02, the completion of 1,500 dwellings was planned, and 1,554 were completed. The majority of social housing schemes are completed within 12 months, but most start in one financial year and reach completion in the next. In that context, on-site construction on only a small number of dwellings was commenced and completed, with the units made ready for occupation, in the same financial year. The figures are as follows: 10 were commenced and completed in 1999-2000, six in 2000-01, and four in 2001-02. However, given the figures that I mentioned earlier, all those units were completed in each of those financial years.

I welcome the Minister's reply and his confirmation that the units were finished on target. Does he agree that the time has come to deliver social housing according to need rather than on the basis of targets that bear no real relationship to demand?

The Department does not base its provision on targets. Targets are set so that we can measure performance and the extent to which needs are being met. The Housing Executive is responsible for assessing the housing need, and, together with the Department, it sets the targets. However, the Department always considers the level of housing need and the amount of new build that is required. The provision of new build housing should be, and is, based on housing and social need.

The Minister has responded well. What are the main problems that the housing associations face when delivering new build programmes? What measures have been taken to improve the programmes?

If the Department had unlimited supplies of money, it could build more houses and do more. I am therefore keen to bid for more funding for social housing and the housing budget generally. If we had more money, we could do more. Due to land acquisition costs, the last few years have been difficult for housing associations. There has been a major increase in land prices that affects their ability to compete in the open market. It now takes housing associations longer to get planning permission, resulting in delays. However, despite those delays, they are meeting their targets. It would help if schemes were to start on site earlier in the year. I have created a working party of officials from my Department, the Housing Executive and housing associations to consider ways in which performance can be improved.

Will the Minister outline the level of homelessness outside the big towns and cities? What action will his Department take to deal with the problem?

I refer the Member to my answer to an earlier question on homelessness.

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6.

asked the Minister for Social Development what plans he has to speed up the process for tenants to purchase their NIHE homes.

(AQO 1288/01)

The main published target for house sales is to make an offer within 10 weeks of application in 95% of cases. The most recent monitoring information, available at December 2001, shows performance to be about 73%. Unprecedented demand has been a significant contributory factor. At its meeting on 24 April, the Housing Executive board agreed to several actions to improve performance. Those included giving house sales priority over other land and property functions; allowing additional staff in its three operational units; and making administrative changes to simplify the processing of historic cost information. The Housing Executive will continue to monitor performance and will consider action accordingly. The Housing Executive will inform applicants that, due to the exceptionally high levels of applications, processing may take longer than the target times in some cases. All applications will be dealt with in date order.

Although many tenants agree a sale price with the Housing Executive, its land and property services section can take more than three months to process the legal requirements. Unfortunately, that means that people who have a mortgage offer, which expires after three months, can find themselves in limbo. They have agreed the house purchase price, and they have a mortgage, but because the legal requirements have not been completed they must find a new mortgage.

If the Member has examples of his constituents being put in such a position, I will investigate them. The problem could be alleviated if prospective purchasers confirmed with the Housing Executive the likely date of the agreement before approaching mortgage lenders.

How does the house-sales policy affect housing stock and tenancies for those on the waiting list?

Generally, tenants who avail of the opportunity to buy their homes from the Housing Executive, or housing associations, remain in those houses. Therefore such houses are not available for allocation to those on waiting lists.

The number of people on waiting lists and their waiting times are influenced by factors such as the number of re-lets that become available; the new build programme; the demand on a particular area; and the tenant's choice of area. There may be areas in which houses are available; but tenants may not particularly want to go there. All of those factors must be taken into account.

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7.

asked the Minister for Social Development, in the light of the debate on funding for Women's Centres on 22 April 2002, what plans he has to deal with this issue.

(AQO 1280/01)

The Department for Social Development does not normally provide core funding to women's organisations. The Belfast Regeneration Office and the Londonderry development office will continue to consider applications from women's centres for individual projects, provided that they meet the appropriate criteria. My officials are discussing the general funding of women's organisations with the gender policy unit in OFMDFM.

Does the Minister not accept that his Department is responsible for funding women's organisations, when it is already responsible for funding some of the community and voluntary organisations, and women's organisations come within that category? Why is he so unwilling to deal with the issue, as evidenced during the debate on the Ballybeen Women's Group proposed by one of his Colleagues on 22 April?

As I have said, officials in my Department are in discussion with the Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister on the funding issue. My Department has a special responsibility for relationships between Government and the voluntary and community sector. It is not responsible for mainstream funding, either for the women's sector or local projects. I wish that some Members who speak about the matter would go away and read up on some of the responsibilities to which they, as the proponents of the system, actually agreed. When my hon Friend the Member for Strangford, Mrs Iris Robinson, put the matter before the Assembly two weeks ago in an Adjournment debate, the Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister responded to it.

The Member who spoke to me in the corridor on this and other issues came to the Chamber and made pejorative remarks to the effect that Mr Dodds should have contributed to the debate, and that he might be boycotting the Assembly as well as the Executive. Those remarks are uncalled for. If she were to talk to some of her Colleagues who attended a meeting in this Building, she would know that when dozens of women from various groups across Belfast and the Province came to speak to MLAs, few Members bothered to turn up. I was among those who did. One or two of her party Colleagues were there, but she was noticeable by her absence.

If the Member wants to deal with the issue seriously, rather than score cheap points, it would be more fitting for her to talk to the Department and to others who are interested in it. I remind her and other Members that the issues that the women's sector deals with span the interests of several Departments. Women's health and childcare issues are a matter for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Education, employment and training activities that take place in women's centres meet the interests of various Departments. The core problem of deciding which support structures best equip women to play a full part in the economic, social and community life of Northern Ireland is a matter that the Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister may wish to consider in the light of its responsibilities for gender equality.

I take my responsibilities seriously. I meet people; I will continue to pursue the matter vigorously; and I expect the support of Members when I do so.

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8.

asked the Minister for Social Development to detail his plans to address the funding shortfall being experienced by Citizens Advice Bureaux.

(AQO 1276/01)

The main responsibility for funding local advice centres, including the Citizens Advice Bureaux, lies with district councils. The Department for Social Development contributes to this funding through the community support programme that enables councils to support Citizens Advice Bureaux. I was delighted to secure additional funding of almost £1 million during 2001-02 for that programme. Although the funding was not directed solely to Citizens Advice Bureaux, the local advice sector is benefiting from the additional provision.

The Minister knows the benefit of Citizens Advice Bureaux and other organisations such as Cookstown Benefit Uptake Campaign. Our community depends on such groups. Will the Minister address the problem so that he can increase the amount of money in the community support programme that is ring-fenced for local advice agencies?

I recognise the value of local advice centres, particularly Citizens Advice Bureaux. I regularly meet people from that sector, and I am aware of their valuable work. However, Citizens Advice Bureaux are funded by various sources, including the Department for Social Development, district councils, health and social services trusts, the Community Fund, the Belfast Regeneration Office, the Londonderry Development Office, charitable trusts and European Union funding. Funding for the 24 bureaux and the 109 outreach centres across Northern Ireland amounted to £2,383,581 in 2000-01, which is the last year for which information is available. In addition to funding local bureaux under the community support programme, the Department provides core funding for the regional organisation, the Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, which will receive £383,216 in this financial year. The sector receives a substantial amount of money.

With regard to the community support programme for local advice services, 80% of the funding is provided by district councils, and the remaining 20% is provided by the Department. The idea of ring-fencing part of that funding is inconsistent with the new planning framework, as it requires councils to decide how best to utilise the resources for the programme.

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10.

asked the Minister for Social Development to detail his Department's policy on the use of townland names in departmental correspondence.

(AQO 1281/01)

The Department for Social Development's policy is to respond to correspondence using the address supplied by correspondents, together with the postcode and the townland name, where it is included.

I am disappointed with the response, given that the Assembly unanimously supported a motion that asked Departments to initiate the use of townland names on all correspondence, and the Minister's Department is one of the largest, with the most customers. As townland names are now readily available from the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland on Stranmillis Road, will the Minister ask his Department to take the lead in availing of that service, rather than depend on the information on correspondence? The Department should take the lead in using townland names, where applicable, in all replies to customers.

I can give the Member a categorical assurance that I will definitely consider that. I have no difficulty with that, but we have to bear in mind cost and other implications.

The Member touched on the fact that the Department for Social Development, through the Social Security Agency, the Child Support Agency, and so on, has a great deal of correspondence with a large number of customers. That is also relevant.

Townland names are part of our heritage, and should be preserved. I congratulate the Member on his assiduous efforts to keep this matter to the fore, and I fully endorse the use of townland names. I will certainly continue with the practice I believe is common throughout Government - and if it is not, it should be - of supporting the use of townland names when used by a correspondent.

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12.

asked the Minister for Social Development what plans he has to provide more social housing in the Lagan Valley constituency.

(AQO 1279/01)

I ask the Minister to be brief.

In answer to the Member's supplementary question in the House on 8 April, I detailed the social housing plans for the next three-year period. In summary, nine new homes are currently under construction, with a further 218 planned for the period 2002-03 to 2004-05 throughout the Lagan Valley constituency. The Housing Executive, as the arbiter of housing need in the Province, assures me that the current housing needs of the area are largely being met. However, it is also aware that there has recently been an increase in waiting lists and housing stress in many areas, including Lisburn. A review and analysis of these trends is currently in progress. The annual roll-forward of the programme is due to take place in December, and my Department, in consultation with the Housing Executive, will look afresh at the information emanating from the waiting lists in Lagan Valley, and will reprioritise the new-build programme as appropriate.

I would like to clarify the Minister's information. I received information from the local office that 137 new-build houses were coming on-stream. That indicates that there is a problem with information coming from the central offices to the local council.

The time for questions is up. I am certain that the Minister will reply to the question at a later date.

The House-Buying Process

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I beg to move

I welcome the opportunity to debate this issue on the Floor of the Assembly. It is over a year since I first embarked on a fact-finding and information-gathering task to see what we can do to help first-time buyers, in particular, to cope with the problems of making what may be the greatest financial undertaking of their lives.

Nobody in Ireland or Britain can have failed to notice the recent spiralling increase in house prices. That may be a welcome trend here in Northern Ireland. Stability has followed the peace process, and an increase in property prices reflects some kind of economic upturn. However, I believe that it has brought several problems with it, and I have some concerns about what this kind of price rise will mean.

In the first instance, it is eclipsing the increase in wages, and the gap, particularly for first-time buyers, is widening. First-time buyers had no problem accessing a mortgage four or five years ago, but that category can no longer do so. The first-quarter figures for this year show a small drop of 0·7% in house prices, believe it or not, but you get a better picture if you look at the last three years, during which there was a 22% increase in prices. There has been no comparative increase in income levels and salaries to compensate for that. That is where the concern arises. If we are to avoid the kind of situations we have seen recently in London and Dublin, we should try to put together some means of dealing with it.

Co-ownership in Northern Ireland has been one of the more successful initiatives introduced to help people who have difficulty getting into the housing market in the first instance. Uptake in co-ownership has been vastly more successful in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. A total of 16,681 households have taken part in the scheme, and 74% of those have "staircased up" in that they have entirely bought out the part of the house they were renting and have become full owner-occupiers. Of those who have not done so, two thirds have remained in the home-owning market, even though they may still not have bought out the portion they were renting.

Recently there has been an increase in the amount of money available, and there has been an increase in the levels of house prices that can be dealt with. However, I particularly want to draw attention to this today because it is not enough. In April, the scheme had 50% more applications than expected. There is a big demand; people want to make use of this facility in order to enter the first-time buyers' market. There is an indication that this trend will increase. There is also a suggestion that the equity margin might be reduced from 50% to 40%. I urge the Minister and his Department to consider whether this is possible alongside the co-ownership scheme and also if it is possible to provide some further funding.

The home buy scheme has been successful in Wales. It differs from the co-ownership scheme in that the Government offers an interest-free loan on a percentage of the mortgage, which in Wales currently stands at 25%. When the property is sold, the owners are required to pay this back, together with the same percentage of the profit made on the property. Even if in Northern Ireland it were a mere 10% to begin with, first-time buyers might be able to use it as an opportunity to get on to the first rung of the ladder towards homeownership.

People sometimes argue for a first-time buyer's grant and some type of Government intervention. In the South, where this practice has been in operation for some time, evidence indicates that this becomes incorporated into the house price. It pushes up the price of the property and, in the end, is little help to the first-time buyer. Although it would appear to be a helpful suggestion, it has not been proven to give great support to the first-time buyer.

A popular suggestion has been to scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers. We hope to see the first benefits of that when the legislation comes into force in January next year.

However, the motion is not simply about affordability per se; it is also about making the process of buying a home more efficient. There are several streams in the motion, all of which will be helpful if they are examined and advanced.

One of the main recommendations of the report published in 2000, 'Improving the House Buying Process - Recommendations of the General Consumer Council for NI', was the establishment of a seller's pack along the lines of the prepared legislation in the United Kingdom. This pack would contain relevant information on the property, including property certificates, warranties and, most importantly, details of a house condition survey.

There is debate about the effectiveness of the seller's pack. I hope that when that important issue is looked at, we will look at the needs of Northern Ireland and adopt that excellent idea to suit the needs of Northern Ireland, and there are reasons for that.

All buyers - not just first-time buyers - find themselves having to pay for more than one survey each time they are interested in a home. It is not unusual for several different surveys to be commissioned for one house, and those surveys may all have differing results depending on the standards of the surveyor. That is simply a waste of money, and the people who benefit are not the buyers or sellers.

The Government in Westminster have put the surprising figure of £380 million wasted annually on a process that is not completed. When a house-buyer is interested in a house he has a survey carried out, and if the sale is not completed the money spent on the survey is lost. The house-buyer could also have legal and other fees, and if the deal is not completed, that money is also lost. That is a huge amount of money.

How many millions of pounds are wasted in Northern Ireland each year on aborted transactions? That includes money spent on surveys that tell buyers that they cannot afford to buy, money paid to solicitors for carrying out wasted work, and weeks or months wasted in trying to purchase a house, during which time house prices continue to rise.

As most sellers go on to buy another property, an outlay on a seller's pack would balance itself out. The pack is formulated upfront, but it does not need to be paid for upfront. It could be incorporated into the whole process. There would be great benefits in having a seller's pack.

To further simplify the process it has been suggested that buyers should have access to information prior to and during the house-buying process. At present the buyer must buy advice from a professional body. The General Consumer Council (GCC) identified difficulties in accessing written quotations to enable the buyer to shop around, and it recommends that clear information should be available to buyers.

Many people entering the property arena have no idea of what to expect, what costs are involved or what the pitfalls are. A totally independent, Government-regulated buyer's information pack would save time, money and unnecessary inconvenience for the independent buyer.

The motion calls for the regulation of estate agents. Many buyers and sellers are unclear about what to expect from estate agents, what costs are involved and what their rights are. I have seldom met any buyers, particularly first-time buyers, who were completely satisfied that the process had been open and transparent and that everything had been done correctly. Other Members could bear me out on that. Even if that is only a perception, it should be removed.

There is an ombudsman in England, and the introduction of an ombudsman service in Northern Ireland would make people more secure in the transactions that they undertake. It would leave the process more open and examinable.

Contrary to some suggestions, many estate agents in Northern Ireland have voluntarily become involved in the English system and have become members of the club that makes use of the ombudsman service. The estate agent in my town is one of the few in the area to have become involved, and that is to be commended. However, it should not be voluntary; it should be mandatory, and through that service we could gain confidence in the house-buying process.

The ombudsman service in Northern Ireland would dictate that estate agents must make a consumer guide available, thus committing themselves to a fair and stringent code of practice. The buyer would be able to access internal complaints procedures and have a legal right of access to bidding books so that they could see the bidding on a house. It would wipe out the possibility that estate agents have the ability to push up prices for their own benefit.

The process of buying a house must be overhauled, particularly in the light of what we have learnt from our counterparts in Dublin and London. This is a detailed matter, and I have touched only briefly on some of the issues. I am glad that the Minister for Social Development is present and taking an interest in the debate. I hope that he will take the issue to his Department and see what he can come up with.

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