Latest News

2021-2022 draft budget would negatively impact vulnerable groups

24 February 2021

In January 2021, the Department of Finance published their draft budget. The document sets out the Northern Ireland Executive’s proposed spending plans for the one year period from 1 April 2021 to March 2022.

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Private Tenancies, Policy, Homelessness, NI Assembly

Housing Rights recommends changes to Support for Mortgage Interest loans

18 February 2021

In January, the Financial Conduct Authority published guidance requiring lenders not to enforce possession against homeowners until 1 April 2021.

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Benefits, Coronavirus, Repossession, Policy

Time is running out as welfare reform mitigations face another ‘Cliff Edge’

15 February 2021

The Cliff Edge Coalition is once again urgently calling for legislation to be passed to extend the welfare reform mitigations package. Without new legislation, mitigations will end in March 2021.The Coalition is further calling for this legislation to close loopholes in the existing arrangements which have left thousands unprotected from the benefit cap and bedroom tax.

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Benefits, Welfare Reform

LHA rates frozen at 2020/21 levels

4 February 2021

In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chancellor decided to realign Local Housing Allowance rates so that they accurately reflected the 30th percentile of local rents. This announcement was widely welcomed, although many organisations argued that LHA rates should never have been allowed to drift so far from real market rents and that a more supportive emergency measure would be to increase the rates to the 50th percentile of local rents.

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Legislation, Private Tenancies, Affordability

Resolution Foundation Research on Housing and Covid-19

18 January 2021

The UK think tank Resolution Foundation has produced a number of essential reports on the Covid-19 crisis over the past 9 months, including the most recent report focused on the necessity of reforming Statutory Sick Pay to support the Covid-19 recovery phase.