Developers in the North may be hit with social housing obligation

Politicians in the North are considering making developers contribute to the provision of new social housing, an Assembly committee was told today.

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie (SDLP, South Down) told her Assembly scrutiny committee that she and Environment Minister Arlene Foster were looking at the proposal and also how government land sales could finance new social and affordable homes.

Ms Ritchie, who revealed she would be making a major statement in the Assembly next Tuesday outlining her social housing vision, told MLAs that she had been impressed by some of the schemes she had visited in London and Dublin.

However she was not prepared at this stage to reveal her plans ahead of next Tuesday’s statement.

The minister told Fra McCann (Sinn Féin): “Minister Foster and I are currently considering the issue (of developer contributions).

“That would provide money through developer contributions and more land sales to build more houses throughout the spectrum.

“That would help those in need, those on the waiting list or who are homeless and those unable to get on the property ladder.”

Ms Ritchie has made the provision of social and affordable homes a key priority of her department and secured an additional £200m (€265m) in Finance Minister Peter Robinson’s budget.

She also said she believed she could meet the target which had been set for her over the subsequent three years to build 1,500 new homes followed by 1,750 and 2,000 through creativity and good management.

The minister was urged by Alban Maginness (SDLP, North Belfast) to ensure that the developer’s contribution was used as an incentive to encourage social housing new build and not simply forced upon them.

He also raised concerns that given the current market value of land, government land sales might not provide the finance the Department for Social Development envisaged it might raise.

The minister said: “On the issue of land sales I cannot disagree with you and I have sought an assurance from the Minister for Finance in a letter of settlement that if there is a fall in land sales I would have the guarantee that I would be entitled to the rest of the funding in the in-year monitoring.

“I have got that verbally but I do need it in writing. If there is need out there we must be able to meet that need.”

Ms Ritchie has in recent months talked to her counterparts in London and Dublin about the provision of social housing.

It is understood that one of the options she has looked at is a developer giving a guarantee when applying for planning permission that either he or she would provide social housing on the site or provide money equivalent to what it would have cost to have social housing on the site which could be used for public housing schemes.