Northern Ireland's Department of Social Development has missed the opportunity to write a new housing strategy for the province in its draft housing bill, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has said.
The criticism was made in the CML's response to the bill, which is now out to consultation.

The lenders body said the bill "exhibits the characteristics of legislation designed to bring an existing position up to date", and failed to present new ideas.

The lenders objected in particular to what they said was a lack of thought about the future of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, and about the role of private finance and stock transfer.

Getting transfer under way as a means of making private finance available for improvements should be addressed by the department "as a matter of urgency," the CML said.

It went on to say that the housing executive could not continue to operate as it had previously because its stock was being whittled away by sales to tenants, and it was no longer responsible for new building.

Public spending in Northern Ireland is likely to fall to the level of the rest of the UK as the peace process takes hold.

The lenders warned this would hit the housing executive's ability to keep its homes up to standard, unless it can access more private finance.

"It is a pity that the department has not used the opportunity presented by the [bill] to develop its strategic thinking and to resolve the lack of clarity surrounding the future of the NIHE as landlord, strategic authority and possibly as regulator of the social housing sector," the council said.

l The lenders body also attacked the Scottish Executive's proposals on tenant participation for failing to ensure that tenant management organisations are up to the job.

It was responding to consultation on the executive's draft guidance under the Housing (Scotland) 2001 Act.

The lenders said the guidance emphasised tenant participation as an end in itself, "to the neglect of the importance of tenant management organisations being able to demonstrate quality housing and financial management capability, and thus take responsibility for high performance, cost-effective services."

Tenant management organisations that delivered high costs and poor services would undermine confidence in participation, the council noted.

It also urged the executive to insist that local authority tenant management arrangements lapse when large- scale voluntary transfer takes place.

It would be unfair to lumber new transfer landlords with arrangements that might be inappropriate and could hamper their ability to meet their business plans, the lenders warned.

Source

Housing Today