Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1983

HL Deb 26 July 1983 vol 443 cc1472-8

6.18 p.m.

The Earl of Mansfield

My Lords, I beg to move another Motion: That the draft Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1983, which was laid before the House on 7th July 1983, be approved. The Conservative Government elected in 1979 were committed to major reforms in housing policy, and these were given effect in England and Wales in the Housing Act 1980 and in Scotland in the Tenants' Rights, Etc. (Scotland) Act 1980, which noble Lords might recall the noble Lord, Lord Ross of Marnock, and myself discussing at length.

The Government have been equally committed to the extension of the same policies to Northern Ireland and this draft order has been the subject of wide-ranging consultations with interested bodies in Northern Ireland, including the Northern Ireland Assembly and its Environment Committee, and has also been debated recently in another place. The order is lengthy, much of it technical and I shall keep my opening remarks brief; if there are particular points which noble Lords wish to discuss, of course we can go into greater detail.

The order has five main purposes. First, to provide secure tenants of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive with the statutory right to become owner-occupiers by purchasing their present homes; secondly, to bring tenants' rights into line with the Tenants' Charter in Great Britain; thirdly, to amend and consolidate the law on renovation grants and introduce powers and a grant to deal with houses in multiple occupation; fourthly, to tighten up the accountability of housing associations and, finally, to implement the findings of the Government's Review of the Private Rented Sector published in March 1981 and introduce the concept of the shorthold tenancy in Northern Ireland.

Part II, Chapter I of the draft order provides the right to buy. Lest noble Lords should think we have been dilatory in bringing forward this legislation, I would emphasise that the Housing Executive has for nearly five years been encouraging its tenants to purchase their homes under non-statutory arrangements. It is only now that some housing authorities in Great Britain are beginning to achieve comparable sales rates. However, the right to buy will go further than the non-statutory arrangements, in that it will extend to tenants living in flats and maisonettes; it is also important that public sector tenants in Northern Ireland should enjoy the same statutory rights as those in other parts of the United Kingdom.

Your Lordships will note that the right to buy provisions in the draft order do not extend to tenants of housing associations. The voluntary housing movement in Northern Ireland is at an early stage of development and the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations has suggested that this extension of the right to buy could seriously deplete the housing stock of individual associations, thereby threatening their viability. Accordingly, housing associations have not been made subject to the right to buy, but will, of course, be able to sell to sitting tenants on a voluntary basis.

Part II, Chapter II of the draft order contains a code of rights for public sector tenants and this "Tenants' Charter", as it is commonly known, introduces new freedoms and responsibilities for tenants broadly in line with those in the rest of the United Kingdom. As with the right to buy, many of the benefits to which this part of the order gives statutory force have been available for some time, but we are keen to reinforce the good practice which already exists with regard to security of tenure, succession rights and improvements.

Part III of the draft order deals with renovation grants. The repair and improvement of existing housing is an increasingly important element of the Government's strategy to improve housing conditions, and expenditure on grants has risen from a level of about £1 million in 1974 to an estimated £40 million in the current financial year. These grants have enabled owner-occupiers and private landlords to make a significant contribution towards the improvement of the inner urban areas, but, equally important, they provide a major incentive to individuals to take the initiative in solving their own housing problems. The order consolidates existing provisions, with changes to increase effectiveness and flexibility, to ensure resources are directed to areas of greatest need, and to introduce special grants for houses in multiple occupation.

Chapter II of Part IV deals with housing associations. It extends the powers of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland to grant-aid advisory services for housing associations, ensures that there can he no obstacles in the rules of registered housing associations which might inhibit voluntary sales to sitting tenants, and strengthens the financial regimes of registered housing associations.

I should emphasise that these changes do not result from any widespread malpractice by housing associations, which are making an increasing and indispensable contribution towards tackling the Province's housing problems. They will receive this year over £38 million from the public purse and must be seen to be fully accountable: the changes have been welcomed by the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations.

I now come to Part V of the draft order, which deals with the private rented sector. As I said earlier, the majority of the provisions in the Part implement the findings of the review group set up by the Government to carry out a review of the private rented sector in Northern Ireland.

The concept of the protected shorthold tenancy, which allows landlords to let properties without running the risk of taking on a sitting tenant for life, will, I believe, remove a major disincentive to new lettings, and will benefit people, such as the young and the mobile, who are not yet seeking long-term security. The order also encourages lettings by facilitating repossession of dwellings let by temporarily absent owner-occupiers, by owners of retirement homes and by servicemen pending release from the armed forces.

This draft order affects directly the lives of up to a quarter of a million tenants in the public and private sectors in Northern Ireland; it changes fundamentally the relationship between landlord and tenant; it raises the status of tenants and it confers on tenants, particularly in the public sector, the freedom to enjoy their homes in the way best suited to their requirements and ultimately to take the steps towards ownership if they wish. I commend the order to your Lordships and beg to move.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 7th July be approved.—(The Earl of Mansfield.)

Lord Underhill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for explaining the order. Once again I must comment that we have here a massive order which, if it was not for the peculiar position of Northern Ireland legislation, would be the subject of a Bill, in so far as it covers 108 Articles and 12 Schedules which cannot be amended and can only be accepted or rejected. I note that this has been considered by the Northern Ireland Committee of the other place and that a number of criticisms were made. Again I would comment, as I did on the previous order, that there was a most useful discussion at the Assembly which issued an excellent report on this order. That again testifies to the value of the Assembly in regard to the social problems of Northern Ireland.

Generally, it would appear that the Assembly approved the order, but it wanted 28 amendments made and three other recommendations were sent forward. I am pleased to note that the Government recognised the strength of some of these recommendations and have incorporated a number of them in the draft order. Much need not be said about the order because, as the Minister has said, in the main the provisions correspond to the Housing Act 1980.

The principle of the right to buy was fully debated by your Lordships when we dealt with the 1980 Act, but I remind your Lordships of a few arguments because the position of the Labour Opposition is often misunderstood. There is always the problem that the best properties go first, particularly properties with gardens. Those on waiting lists will have difficulty in transferring to better properties. This applies to families with young children and those in high-rise blocks. As one who took part in the deliberations on the docklands special Select Committee, that clearly came out as a problem when families with young children and those in high-rise blocks wished to move. It would appear that the new rent scheme which is proposed could have the effect of pushing the sale of popular houses and reducing demand to buy in the less popular areas.

Ministers have always argued that a pool of housing will remain, whether they are sold or not. But unless new buildings are constructed and renovation takes place in numbers equal to or greater than the numbers sold, inevitably there must be fewer properties available to let.

Nevertheless, I recognise that the Housing Executive in Northern Ireland has carried out its voluntary principles for sales already and some 16,000 properties have been sold without this order being required at that stage. Is it clear from the order—I cannot find it myself—whether the Housing Executive will have the first right of repurchase if, within a certain period, the purchaser wishes to sell? Clearly, there will have to be a period laid down for this.

I wish to ask a general propaganda point. If the principle of the right to buy is correct, why is there never any mention of the Government giving the right to buy to the tenants of private landlords? This is not mentioned. In that connection, I notice that the evidence given by Shelter to the Assembly stated that the proposals could lead to a potential loss of 40,000 relettable properties and that the Housing Executive estimate is that the housing deficit in Northerm Ireland is between 30,000 and 60,000 houses. Some 142,000 houses need remedial action. And this is a housing order! Shelter argued in the evidence it gave to the Assebly that the private sector in Northern Ireland comprises some 49,000 dwellings; 10 per cent. of the total housing stock. I quote from Shelter's evidence that Northern Ireland has, Traditionally been the most neglected and rundown areas of housing". It continues— conditions of restricted tenancies have been desrcibed in a recent survey as atrocious: 52 per cent. with no mains water, 86 per cent. no inside toilet and over half the private sector houses unfit". One might ask what the Government proposals might he to deal with that situation, particularly bearing in mind, as quoted on the Appropriation Orders, the heavy unemployment among construction workers in Northern Ireland.

There are only a few points that I should like to ask the Minister. Dealing with the tenants' charter—which, naturally, we welcome—Article 40 provides that before making any decision on housing management the landlord shall consult organisations as it may recognise. Can the Minister give some indication of what those organisations might be? Subparagraph (3) of the same article says that such consultation shall exclude questions of rent or any charge for services or facilities provided by the landlord. Why should such points be barred from consultation with the organisations—particularly that regarding charge for services and facilities offered by the landlord? One would have thought that they would be matters for rightful consultation.

Can the noble Earl also explain—and I can understand if tonight he cannot deal with some of these points and, if he cannot, perhaps he will write to me about them—what is the actual effect of Article 43? Does this undermine in some way the position of divorced or separated women who have custody of children with regard to the possession of a house in such circumstances? Also, on Article 41, in view of the security problems which exist in Northern Ireland, do the responsibilities which are placed on the landlord—which is the executive —where a secure tenancy is abandoned present problems? I have a number of other points which could be raised, but as this Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 in general follows the pattern of the 1980 Act I will leave it by asking just those few questions.

Lord Hampton

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Earl for his introduction of this order which, once again, is designed to bring affairs in the Province into line with the mainland. I should just like to ask the Minister whether any major differences will remain.

6.32 p.m.

The Earl of Mansfield

My Lords, perhaps I could deal first with the points of the noble Lord, Lord Underhill. If he will forgive me, I will read what he says about Article 43 and write to him because it is a technical article. It refers back to the 1978 Act and particular: y to the Second Schedule. I shall have to do a little bit of homework with the help of officials. If I might come to the more political part of what the noble Lord said, what I think he said, in so far as the right to buy is concerned, is a variation on what the Opposition have said at intervals ever since the proposal first saw the light of day in another place. If tenants did not buy their own homes they would remain as tenants—that, I think could scarcely be gainsaid—unless they gave up their tenancy and moved to the private sector.

The fact of the matter is that, at least in Northern Ireland, the executive is fully seized of the problems. It is also a fact that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has made housing an absolutely top priority as far as the allocation of his block funding is concerned and it will be the fact that the Housing Executive will be able to devote the cash that it receives from the sales to improving and increasing its housing stock. The long-term effects are not easy to predict. In Northern Ireland there will be changes in the pattern of housing demand. That will occur as our economic circumstances change and it will occur probably over the next generation.

But, as I have said, the Housing Executive in Northern Ireland are continuing a major programme of building and that will be likely to balance the loss of any re-lets that there may be. The Government are convinced—and I think this is becoming more and more appreciated by the population at large—of the social and economic benefits which accrue when tenants are permitted to buy their homes; and the spread of home ownership certainly outweighs any theoretical disadvantages which have been put up against a policy. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, if I may use a homely term. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive have been willing to sell homes to their tenants, and in fact the tenants in the last live years have been very happy to take up the offer.

Of course, one must bear in mind that the stock of housing remains in demand and that therefore it will remain a charge on the Housing Executive—and this is one that they are eager to continue; they should maintain an enhanced housing programme to look after the needs of those who will continue to look to the public sector.

Then, asks the noble Lord, Lord Underhill, hot from the hustings last month: "Why are tenants of private landlords not given a similar right?" Really, it would not be proper for the Government to interfere with the property rights of private individuals. Public sector houses are provided from public funds, from the taxpayer, and it is entirely a different matter if in these circumstances the tenants are invited to buy their homes using such funds as they can raise on mortgage.

Then the noble Lord asked, in effect, whether there will be a right of pre-emption on the part of the Housing Executive if the erstwhile tenants decide to sell the houses which they bought. The noble Lord will have seen that there are discount arrangements. Under the terms of those arrangements tenant purchasers can be required to repay all, or at least part, of the discount if there is a resale within five years. Apart from this, tenant purchasers are as free to deal with their homes as any other private owner occupier. The noble Lord, Lord Underhill, asked under Article 40, about the organisations which will be consulted about matters of housing management. The answer is that the Housing Executive will be free to consult with whatever organisation it recognises as representative of its tenants. There is no fetter on its discretion.

The noble Lord, Lord Hampton, asked whether there will be any major differences as between policy in Northern Ireland and in the rest of Great Britain. There are, of course, minor differences as between Scotland and England and that will be reflected; but on the right to buy, the tenants' charter, the line is broadly going to be the same on each side of the Irish Sea. On the private rented sector, Northern Ireland has its own legislation which is designed to meet its own peculiar problems. Nevertheless, as far as this order is concerned, the law will broadly be in line both in Northern Ireland and in the rest of Great Britain.

On Question, Motion agreed to.