North's social housing funding given extra £20m

Social housing projects are to get a £20m (€23.1m) boost as part of a reshuffle of Stormont funds announced today by Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.

The Assembly was recalled from its summer recess after parties demanded full details of the redistribution to government departments of £235m (€272m) in unspent resources that were originally to have been agreed in June.

The Finance Minister sought to highlight new data that, he said, showed a record £10,000m (€11,570m) spent on public services, but today’s announcement also revealed the cost of deferring water charges was now hitting the Stormont purse.

A total of £170m (€197m) was needed to accommodate the cost of deferring water charges over the year.

Officials claimed, however, this was offset by the fact that if water charges were introduced, politicians would have cut regional rates to ease the burden on households, thereby costing an estimated £109m (€126m).

A row also developed today after Ulster Unionists hit out at the failure to find more funding immediately to help their Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, combat swine flu.

Mr Wilson today claimed that a decline in underspending by departments, together with the overall increased spending on public services and capital projects, showed government was managing its finances better than ever.

“Northern Ireland Executive departments spent £8,600m (€9,951m) in current expenditure in 2008-09, an increase of 5.1% on the previous year with spend on Health and Social Care increasing by 8.2%, highlighting the significant level of investment in priority frontline services,” said Mr Wilson.

“The position on capital was even more positive with almost £1,500m (€1,735m) in net capital investment being taken forward, equivalent to an increase of 32% on 2007-08 or almost £1m (€1.16m) a day in additional investment, providing a real boost to the local construction industry during these difficult times.”

Mr Wilson said the investment boost came because government departments succeeded in spending 99.7% of the Executive’s budget.

“This is a vast improvement on the performance of NI departments under Direct Rule when, for example, almost £380m (€440m) of resources were left unspent at the end of 2005-06,” he said.

The June Monitoring Round sees unspent government funding redistributed between government departments after the various ministers make pitches for support for projects.

Mr Wilson said that despite facing a challenging financial position he was able to allocate £20m (€23.1m) to boost the social housing work of Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie.

The funds will finance house renovations and modifications for the disabled.

Ms Ritchie said: “The £20m (€23.1m) for housing is a boost both for tenants and for the local construction sector.

“As well as ensuring that tenants receive much-needed maintenance to their homes, local maintenance contractors will be able to sustain around 800 jobs in the construction sector.

“I am grateful to my ministerial colleagues for recognising the validity of the case for more investment in housing as put forward last month by Professor Mike Smith of the University of Ulster.”

But the SDLP’s Declan O’Loan described the handling of the overall budgetary announcement as a ’debacle’ and criticised the need to recall the Assembly to ensure the details were discussed by MLAs.

The announcement was expected for June but Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey objected to being handed details of the complex financial package at short notice before an Executive meeting.

He refused to rubber-stamp the plans without a proper chance to scrutinise them.

After an initial expectation that the announcement would be made in September, parties including Sinn Fein demanded the Assembly be recalled to discuss the details.

Sinn Fein and DUP members today criticised Minister Ritchie’s handling of her budget in the past and called for careful use of the fresh resources.

The SDLP had long called for a boost to social housing as a means of supporting the construction industry.

Ms Ritchie said today that the additional £20m (€23.1m) would not fill the £100m (€116m) hole she said was left in her budget by the fall in resources her department expected to make from house sales.