Fermanagh - Northern Ireland Housing Executive

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Regeneration and sustaining communities are key themes of the draft Housing Strategy for Northern Ireland: ‘Facing the Future’. At the local level the Enniskillen Town Masterplan was finalised in November 2012. It gives guidance on many aspects of life in the town, including transport, property, public realm, tourism, retail and leisure. Further details on regeneration activities can be found in Section 3.4. Housing Executive regeneration work continues to improve housing and living conditions through physical improvement programmes. Census 2011 reports 2,097 empty dwellings in Fermanagh District, although it does not distinguish vacant from second/holiday homes. A number of dwellings will be vacant as part of the normal turnover in ownership or tenancy. In order to avoid blight caused by long term empty dwellings, the Housing Executive will investigate the potential for returning them to use to meet housing need. In response to the draft Housing Strategy for Northern Ireland, the Housing Executive highlighted that housing-led regeneration programmes were essential to meeting housing need and maintaining stock fit for purpose in both urban and rural areas. Socio economic Planning The population of Fermanagh increased by 7.4% between 2001 and 2011 and is projected to increase by a further 8.8% by 2021. The number of households is also projected to increase by 14.4% by 2021 (see Table 1). The population is ageing; it is projected that by 2021 older people will represent 19% of the population in the district. Changing demographics, particularly in age profile and average household size, are important factors when considering numbers and design of new housing. Table 1: Key Demographic Statistics – Fermanagh District Demographics Census 2001 Census 2011 Projected 2021 Children 13,864 (24%) 13,141(21%) 13,843 (20%) Working age 34,515 (60%) 37,631 (61%) 40,838 (61%) Older people 9,148 (16%) 11,033 (18%) 12,576 (19%) Total Population 57,527 61,805 67,257 Households 20,454 23,069 26,400 Average Household Size 2.78 2.65 - Source: NISRA 16
Census 2011 reports 96.1% of the population of Fermanagh was born in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, 2.7% in other EU countries and 1.2% in countries outside the EU. The local economy has been adversely affected by the recession. Figures from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) show that 5.1% (2,073) of the working age population of Fermanagh were claiming unemployment related benefits at March 2013, an increase of 3.4% over the year. At March 2013, 1,659 Housing Executive tenants were claiming housing benefit in the district, a minor decrease of 0.2% since March 2012. The Northern Ireland Construction Bulletin, October 2012, notes that outputs last year were approximately 40% lower than peak outputs in 2007. Job and self-employment opportunities in the sector have fallen considerably; the number of unemployment benefit claimants across Northern Ireland from the construction sector has more than doubled since 2007. 2.3 Housing market profile Fermanagh District forms part of the Fermanagh Housing Market Area (see Map 1). The housing market analysis identifies a number of housing issues which present significant challenges in the current economic climate. These include: • Difficulty in accessing mortgage finance; • Potential for growth in the intermediate housing sector; • Ongoing requirement for investment in, and regulation of, the private rented sector; • Homelessness; • Fuel poverty; • Low but rising unfitness levels; • The need for additional social housing in some locations. According to Census 2011, the housing stock in Fermanagh comprises 23,069 households with tenure composed as follows: • Owner occupation is the most popular tenure and at 72.7% it is considerably higher than the Northern Ireland figure of 67.5%; • The private rented sector houses 14.6% of households (Northern Ireland 15.1%). Lending restrictions limiting access to owner occupation have contributed to the growth of the private rented sector; 17
Page 1 and 2: Fermanagh District Housing Plan & L
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword .................
Page 5 and 6: Following the Northern Ireland Audi
Page 7 and 8: • At March 2013, the Housing Exec
Page 9: Landlord Services Corporate Objecti
Page 12 and 13: 1.3 Policy context The Northern Ire
Page 14 and 15: We see this as a prerequisite to ea
Page 17: Section 2 Housing Market Analysis 2
Page 21 and 22: Northern Ireland Co-ownership Housi
Page 23: Table 3: Social housing statistics
Page 26 and 27: In line with the proposed separatio
Page 28 and 29: DSD introduced the Tenancy Deposit
Page 30 and 31: 3.3 Objective 2 - Supporting indepe
Page 32 and 33: development are among the core obje
Page 34 and 35: Landlord Services The Housing Execu
Page 36 and 37: 3.8 Objective 3 - Building stronger
Page 38 and 39: 3.9 Objective 4 - Delivering qualit
Page 40 and 41: Appendices 38
Page 42 and 43: Appendix 2 Maintenance and grants i
Page 44 and 45: Analysis of adaptations to Housing
Page 46 and 47: Appendix 4 Household composition of
Page 48 and 49: Settlement Type Single person Small
Page 50 and 51: Common Landlord Area Bung (i) Flat

Fermanagh - Northern Ireland Housing Executive

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