Nearly six months into the job as CEO, I’m still discovering on a daily basis the breadth and scope of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. The obvious features remain true: a landlord at scale, managing more than 84,000 homes, keeping 170,000 people safe, warm and dry – that’s almost 10% of the region’s population living in our properties.

Alongside this, it remains the strategic housing authority for Northern Ireland, continuing to meet its fundamental purpose of ensuring housing is administered in a fair and impartial manner. But the organisation goes far beyond that these days, with responsibility for homelessness, assessing housing need, providing private sector grants, administering Housing Benefit and enabling the Social Housing Development Programme.

All of these functions are critical to daily life in Northern Ireland – as an organisation with a budget of £1.2 billion, there are few corners of the region not impacted in some way by our work. But size does not guarantee that an organisation delivers the right outcomes. What I have learned in my short time in the organisation is that purpose, values and people make the difference.

50th anniversary

The NIHE is unique because it is a product of its past. Over the past 50 years, the organisation has built more than 80,000 homes, set up an allocation system and methods of identifying housing need, overseen housing unfitness levels drop from 20% to 2% and, though this work, has transformed many communities across Northern Ireland.

We’ve assisted countless households in need of housing and of support, built and improved hundreds of thousands of properties, and regenerated many neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland. Most importantly we have won widespread support from the communities we serve and are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for the positive social impact of our work.

“Over the past 50 years, the organisation has built more than 80,000 homes, set up an allocation system and methods of identifying housing need, overseen housing unfitness levels drop from 20% to 2% and, though this work, has transformed many communities across Northern Ireland.”

Meaningful impact

The NIHE has built on its original vision and has become an organisation that goes beyond the social, to achieving meaningful economic and environmental impact. With an annual maintenance programme of £217 million this year, we ensure this spend has the best economic impact locally, inserting social value clauses in our contracts to yield jobs and sustainable economic growth for local communities. We are passionate about ensuring we are making Northern Ireland climate resilient, and so we are retrofitting up to 2,700 homes in three years, learning through innovation and reducing fuel poverty at the same time.

So despite its size, and having a range of sometimes disparate functions, I find myself leading an organisation that thinks and acts locally. As a result, it is uniquely trusted by the people it serves. That trust has been built up over 50 years, and retaining it is daily work.

So for this reason, while I am excited by the prospect of revitalising the organisation – freeing it up to borrow in the public interest – I am equally committed to ensuring that a renewed organisation retains the purpose, values and people that make it unique.

Pictured: New housing, Apsley Street, Belfast