Michael Kelly, IRSP representative for the Lower Falls explaining recent concerning changes within the Housing Executive policy that will lead to serious issues with tenants.
I was speaking to a representative of the Housing Executive yesterday on behalf of a resident who’s house was down for the kitchen replacement scheme. After initially being passed for the installation of the new kitchen to go ahead, the tenant was contacted by the Housing Executive and informed that work wouldn’t be starting due to them having a loft conversion done a number of years ago without H.E consent.
Now I’m well aware that it has always been frowned upon by the H.E for tenants carrying out their own work in their homes but 9 times out of 10 this was given a by ball when the H.E were carrying out any work such as kitchen and bathroom replacement schemes. The resident in question also had gas installed through the H.E recently and there was no issue.
The H.E told me yesterday that there has been a “sea change” within the Housing Executive recently and that they are now point blank refusing to touch any homes who have done their own work themselves. And that this has come from the very top of the H.E along with the company who are now overseeing such work around replacement schemes.
I made the point to him that this would inevitably cause mass frustration and anger within working class areas as a very high number of homes under the ownership of the H.E have had work done by tenants past and present, and that a lot of tenants in H.E owned properties rely on the necessary replacement schemes taking place as they simply don’t have the financial means to do such work themselves.
This smacks of the H.E attempting to save money at the detriment of their tenants. This will undoubtedly turn into a wider scale issue if this is now the strict regulations of the H.E and one that in my opinion they won’t be able to sustain. I will be making contact with the Area Manager of the Housing Executive today to make my concerns and the concerns of many residents who have contacted us with regards to this known.
