It’s been over one month since Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, in her position as then Communities Minister, outlined her party’s proposals to shake up the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE). We still await details, beyond the headline that the landlord arm of the NIHE should move toward a mutual model. 

Yet in the meantime, at local government level, Sinn Féin councillors have twice voted against motions clearly proposing an anti-privatisation position on the NIHE. Put simply, if Sinn Féin are not against privatisation then they are only left with two other positions: they are either for it or they’re indifferent. 

In her statement on the 3rd November 2020 to the NI Assembly, then minister Ní Chuilín stated: “While the Housing Executive remains classified as a quasi-public corporation, as a Landlord it cannot borrow. If we can change this classification, then the Housing Executive as a Landlord will secure the freedom to borrow and have the ability to invest in its own homes.” 

This is not wholly accurate, however. The NIHE can borrow. But that would be a political choice. This is because any borrowing that the NIHE did now would be held as government debt, as stated in an answer to a NI Assembly Written Question as posed by SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole.

The need for details

If the NIHE were to be reclassified, who would it borrow from? If it were to borrow from the private market, it would require a credit rating. What is commonly referred to as the G15 is London’s biggest housing associations who did borrow from the private market but to enable this to happen they had to change how they operate. 

According to a recent paper from the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA) paper, “G15 members have internalised the rating agencies’ criteria and adjusted their activities to achieve the highest possible rating. For example, between 2006 to 2015, the average operating margin increased from 20.1% to 30.5%, above 30% is the criteria for the highest rating from Moody’s.” 

How could our NIHE achieve such commercial changes, higher rents, reduced staff wages, less maintenance or building and selling in the private market? The problem is we lack the detail from the former or current Communities Minister. 

We have a housing crisis with nearly 30,000 households on the housing waiting list living in housing stress. You may hear the argument that removing the responsibility from the NI Executive to an association may provide efficiency.

According NIPSA’s findings, “Since the turn of the century housing associations have received over £2.3 billion in public funding. Specifically, in the five years up to 2018 housing associations have received £362.8 million just to build new homes. During the relevant period, the number of new housing association homes completed is 4,940, resulting in a public grant per new home of £73,441.29.”

Due to the lack of detail, there are huge question marks around these plans. For instance, would tenants be granted the same tenancy rights as they are today? Would NIHE employees receive the same or similar employment contracts?

Without Sinn Féin outlining any such plans in their recent manifestos, it begs the question have the civil servants found a minister who is willing to proceed with their plan to find the £7 billion over 20 years required to maintain the NIHE — this figure floated by the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Communities, Leo O’Reilly, as reported by The Detail in 2018. 

The need for public ownership

Should the worst case scenario present itself, with the NIHE moving to a housing association-type organisation, then we as members of the public will lose the accountability that have over the organisation. Our power to remove our landlord government every five years would be lost.

Instead we would have the option of becoming members of a housing association, whereby accountability is restricted to votes at board level and with competing forces such as the requirements of a decent credit rating. The everyday accountability to contact your MLA or MP to request maintenance and then hold them to account on how well they deliver could become non-existent.

Public ownership puts the government at the wheel regarding the direction of the NIHE. It means policy and subsequent investment remains in the gift of the electorate to choose a party who will invest more or invest less. It ensures those who have the lived experience of the NIHE system hold the power to make things better, protect tenancies and ensure rents are affordable. 

As one of the biggest achievements of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement, the NIHE should be one of Northern Ireland’s best practice examples to the rest of the world on how to allocate housing fairly. Like the NHS, keeping the NIHE under public ownership is crucial.