Derry housing crisis: Thatcher's 'Right to Buy' blamed

The statistics are stark - homelessness is one of the most pressing social issues in Derry.

There are currently 45,000 applicants on the social housing waiting list across the North.

The highest number of homeless presentations is in Derry and Strabane, where one private rented household is made homeless per day. 78 private rented households presented as homeless here between April and June 2023.
However, behind those statistics are people with nowhere to call home, people without the security and stability a secure tenancy brings.

Reflecting on the recent Derry Now coverage of the city’s housing crisis, a retired senior housing official with grass roots experience of working in homelessness, takes the view its origins can be traced back to the Right to Buy scheme - introduced by British Prime Minister Thatcher in 1980. 

“For people to present as homeless, they must get over three hurdles,” he said.

“The Housing Executive has to deem people homeless, which doesn’t necessarily mean they have no roof over their head. Their house could be unsuitable because they have a disability or the landlord is asking them to leave or it is not safe for them to stay there - they might be at risk of intimidation or domestic violence.

“People also have to have ‘priority need’. This means they have to have dependent children; be elderly and have a medical condition or a mobility condition; or maybe  have addiction issues. It is very difficult for single people to get ‘priority need'.

Thirdly, people cannot be intentionally homeless. They cannot create a situation to make themselves homeless, for example not paying their rent or damaging the property.

“Anyone meeting these criteria should present themselves to a Housing Executive office. In Derry that is at Ulster Bank Buildings in Waterloo Square,” he said.

The former housing official advised anyone in these positions to then ask for an assessment under the homeless legislation.

He added, housing officers would investigate the case and the person would get a decision, usually within 30 days.
“If you are found to be homeless, the Housing Executive has a duty to find you temporary accommodation,” he said. “The difficulty at the minute is, there is not enough temporary accommodation.”

“As a result, the Housing Executive has been putting people into  B&Bs and maybe hotels. This is very expensive.

“The problem is, although there is a lot of social housing being built, it is a drop in the ocean. There is not enough social housing being built. 50, 60 or 70 clients might present as homeless, which means there are 50, 60 or 70 units of accommodation needed.

“My personal view is Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ scheme was disastrous in terms of housing over the last number of years. When it was introduced, the Housing Executive had 190,000 properties. It is now down to 70,000 properties, maybe even less.

“It was mad economics to sell your best stock at a greatly reduced price - properties that were maybe built in the 40s, 50s or 60s, with their mortgages long expired.

“That policy has been disastrous, so much so they stopped it in Scotland. No housing provider could ever rebuild to replace that stock because if you sell a house that you built for £20,000 and then you have to spend £150,000 to replace it, it is very, very difficult,” he said.

According to the retired housing official, housing associations were given a budget to buy back some of the properties sold by the Housing Executive in the 1990s and early 2000s.

He added: “A house might have been sold for £20,000 and a housing association buys it back at the market value of £100,000. What’s the economic sense in that?

“Another phrase I hear again and again is ‘affordability’. Could someone please tell me what that is, what ‘affordable housing ’means. There isn’t any affordable housing really, given the wage level in Derry.

“Also, I don’t know why landlords are asking people to leave private rented accommodation but one of the issues must be local housing allowances (LHA).

“Housing Benefit is a welfare benefit. The Housing Executive administers some of it and some of it is paid through universal credit. In the North West Broad Rental Market Area, they will allow a three bedroom rate per week of £107.39 per week. LHA in no way meets what a landlord is going to charge,” he said.

The housing official also advocated a return to housing people in ‘date order’ as opposed to the current points system.

“‘Date order’ was a lot fairer because a person could be told they would be housed in six months ‘because we are coming near your date’.

“When ‘date order’ was used, no-one could go above anyone else on the waiting list.

“Essentially, however, the private sector is the biggest provider of housing. As no-one is ever going to build enough social houses, the answer is to work with private landlords, look at what they are paid, and try to secure tenancies

“Legislation needs to be passed to regulate private landlords who will provide social housing. Landlords and housing associations need to work together so people can secure five year tenancies. Landlords will have to be paid equitable local housing allowances.”