Thousands living in substandard homes

Housing Minister Margaret Ritchie outlined the alarming figures in response to a number of queries tabled at the Stormont Assembly.

The latest available figures taken from the NIHE 2006 Northern Ireland House Condition Survey show 10,760 dwellings here did not meet Decent Homes Standards. In Strabane the figure was 3,400 and in Limavady 3,390.

The Minister also revealed 313 NIHE dwellings in the Collon Terrace office area, 241 dwellings in the Waterloo Place office area and 219 dwellings in the Waterside office area were reliant on Economy 7 heating.

A Waterside community representative said it was unacceptable homes are still not up to standard here and called on NIHE to ensure its stock has modern heating.

Newbuildings representative Alison Wallace said: “Obviously there are still some houses in the village that are over 35 years-old and a lot of them still haven’t proper heating and windows installed,” she commented.

“A number of homes did get upgraded to gas recently but there are still homes reliant on Economy 7 and that really isn’t acceptable,” she said.

The community worker said she hoped NIHE would take action to ensure all home throughout the city were brought up to standard.

An NIHE spokeswoman explained that the 10,760 figure was made up of both both publicand private housing.

She commented: “Since 2001 the number of dwellings failing the Decent Homes Standard has decreased from one-third to less than one-quarter (a drop of nine percentage points and some 44,000 dwellings). “Particularly significant was the fall in the non-decency rate for Housing Executive dwellings from 50 per cent to 25 per cent.

Explaining her Department’s stance on heating systems Ms Ritchie explained: “Replacement of existing heating schemes is carried out on a planned basis where Economy 7 exists in an estate undergoing heating replacements.

“Tenants are offered the opportunity to switch to oil or gas where available but may opt to retain Economy 7 and significant numbers do so for reasons of convenience.

“The Housing Executive has provisionally planned to replace a further 624 Economy 7 heating systems in 2010/11, although this will be dependant on the availability of funding.

“It also plans to offer replacement heating to remaining Economy 7 users over the next five years.”

In Limavady 145 homes are dependent on Economy 7 and in Strabane 17.