Equality

Housing Rights has recently responded to a Housing Executive consultation on their draft Rural Policy Proposals.

Housing Rights welcomes the Executive’s ongoing acknowledgement of the need for specific policies on rural housing, and supports the overarching vision of the proposals: ‘Housing Services working in partnership to enable and support vibrant, shared and sustainable rural communities and provide economic, social and environmental benefits in rural areas.’ Comments were offered on several specific elements of the proposals:

Housing Rights believes that access to justice is paramount in any democracy.  The consultation paper sets out the cost of some of the areas which are proposed to be removed from Legal Aid and Advice (Green Form). Those areas which cover housing related issues, which HRS would be concerned with, amount to a small percentage of the overall Green Form expenditure. Despite it being a small proportion of the overall expenditure, removing such funding could have a devastating effect on the lives of people who potentially need this assistance. Therefore, we strongly feel that the funding of housing related cases should be protected.