Members login

Building Northern Ireland’s Future NIFHA Manifesto for 2017 Assembly Elections

On Thursday 2nd March 2017, the people of Northern Ireland will return to the polls to elect a new Assembly. Housing associations are committed to working with government to tackle the key issues addressing Northern Ireland. We call on Assembly election candidates to pledge to work with us in building great homes and thriving communities.

Key housing challenges to 2021 include:

  • Reclassification of housing associations as public bodies threatens our ability to build;
  • Significant undersupply of new homes of all types and tenures;
  • Forthcoming welfare changes could overwhelm low-income families;
  • Providing housing, care and support to our ageing population;
  • 90% of social housing estates are still single-identity.

To meet these challenges we need the following:

  1. Urgent legislation to help reverse housing associations’ reclassification as public bodies;
  2. 1,500 new social homes each year through annual capital budget of £100m;
  3. High-quality care and support through 10% increase in Supporting People budget;
  4. Robust scrutiny and mitigation of further proposed welfare changes;
  5. Step-change in delivery of new shared housing.

To read the NIFHA Manifesto for 2017 Assembly Elections, click here.