NIFHA Press Room
Election 2010 – the future
Monday 10 May 2010
The Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA) congratulates all of the recently elected MPs on their election.Affordable housing for Northern Ireland’s citizens is a priority. Although much of the power is devolved we look forward to working with MPs to influence elements affecting housing which are within Westminster’s remit.
NIFHA is seeking meetings with our 18 MPs to discuss their objectives for affordable housing in Northern Ireland and how they can work positively for it in Westminster. Commenting on NIFHA’s main aim of these discussions its Chief Executive, Chris Williamson, said:
“From the outset we will be stressing the importance of ensuring the independent and voluntary nature of housing associations remains. Such attributes help associations contribute to achieving public policy goals as they can innovate and supplement public expenditure with private finance.”
NIFHA will also call on our MPs to support housing associations as they continue to supply homes to avoid a further housing crisis. We believe increased investment in affordable housing is vital for Northern Ireland’s recovery. Innovative measures which they can influence at Westminister include:
- Increasing the supply of surplus public land from non-devolved Departments, such as the MOD, for affordable housing.
- Reforming Housing Benefit in order to support the transition into work.
- Reducing VAT to 5 per cent for the refurbishment of existing homes.
A fairer society is a stronger society and we call on MPs to help promotion financial inclusion. Around 60 per cent of financially excluded people live in social housing. Without access to mainstream credit their options for borrowing are often limited to expensive doorstep lenders, or worse, loan sharks.
Social housing tenants are more likely to be in receipt of welfare benefits and on a fixed income. They are therefore less able to cope with increases in fuel costs or unexpected bills. More action is needed to stop doorstep lending and loan sharks and create fairer energy prices. The next UK government must:
- Establish a regulatory framework that puts affordability and protecting customers’ interests at its heart.
- Make it illegal for financial institutions to discriminate against people due to tenure or postcode.
- Work with our energy regulator and energy suppliers to increase competition, make bills easier to understand and ensure all fuel poor households have access to social tariffs and social products.
- Give urgent consideration to banning excessive, predatory interest rate lending and to the creation of a Community Re-investment Act in order to ensure financial inclusion for all.
Taking action on climate change is vital. We believe developing a clear green standard for all tenures is important. Ensuring every new home is built to universally high environmental standards will be vital to reduce fuel bills and consequently lift large numbers of people out of fuel poverty. This should include:
- Promoting new technologies and building materials to make homes more energy efficient.
- At a UK wide level we need a transparent action plan with clear incremental steps.
- Making it a requirement for private developers to build to the same high energy efficiency standards as housing associations.
- Introducing improved incentives for retro-fitting green technologies.
- Immediate action to take full advantage of EU funding packages for retrofitting existing stock.
- Investment in skills and training to create green jobs and get our economy moving again.
- Action to ensure that feed-in tariffs, when introduced next year, are set at a rate that makes community-scale renewable energy an attractive option to the relevant
We want our MPs to back Labour Mobility to encourage self reliance through suitable employment. As the downturn continues, finding such employment becomes more difficult and many people may have to relocate. We therefore recommend:
- Re-establishing a UK mobility scheme so social tenants find it easier to move within and between the countries of the UK to take advantage of job opportunities
Finally EU public procurement rules are intended to promote fair competition across the European Union. However, they are having unintended negative effects on the development of badly-needed social housing in the UK. Last year, in Northern Ireland the problem meant replacements had to be urgently found for 500 of the 1,500 homes planned in the Social Housing Development Programme. We urge our MPs to lobby the European Commission and Parliament to take seriously the move to alter EU public procurement rules. These feed into UK practices and ultimately those of Northern Ireland.
Ends
