Attwood defends Housing Executive over water crisis

The NI housing minister has said the Housing Executive "stepped up to the mark" in its response to the region's water crisis.

It follows criticism from Sinn Fein MLA Fra McCann about how the body dealt with complaints which he claimed went over 40,000 in a three week period from 17 December.

The SDLP's Alex Attwood said the Housing Executive's initial response could have been better, but that it had met the challenge of 30,000 repair orders.

"Every time the Housing Executive has been challenged, they have stepped up to the mark," he said.

"I find it surprising that any political representative should be raising now any issue without bringing it to my attention, when that member's own colleagues in west Belfast and the north are bringing cases to me and to the department's attention.

"Those cases are being dealt with and the department and the Housing Executive are being congratulated for the way they are doing it.

"In the initial stages the Housing Executive should have done more, but measured against the scale of what they had to do and how they have been managing that, there are a very small number of people in homes now that are not dry, warm and safe."

A Sinn Fein delegation is due to meet the chief executive of the Housing Executive later over his organisation's response to the water crisis.

On Wednesday, Stewart Cuddy admitted that the final bill for repairs to damage could top £10m.

Mr McCann, who is Sinn Fein's housing spokesperson, said the figure was "staggering" and warranted urgent investigation.

He claims that some social housing tenants have had no heating or electricty since before Christmas.

He also called on Mr Attwood, whose social development department is responsible for the Housing Executive, to provide "clarity" on what measures are being put in place to help those affected.

Mr McCann said he wanted answers from the Housing Executive on issues such as the role of contractors, how many complaints were outstanding and what it had learned from the water crisis.

"There needs to be a better relationship between the utility companies and government bodies like the Housing Eecutive," he added.

"There has to be the sharing of information so people are not left in the terrible conditions they were over the Christmas period.

"For many people I dealt with, it was a cold, difficult Christmas for them to put in.

"Many people relied on relatives to come in and help, but what happened to people who did not have relatives?"

The thaw following unprecedented freezing conditions, left thousands of people without running water, while many properties across Northern Ireland were badly damaged by flooding.

Questions

Mr McCann said: "What measures were put in place in advance of the adverse weather to give tenants the relevant information and assistance, why were elected representatives not immediately issued with an emergency contact number and what happens now to those tenants, many of them from socially deprived areas?"

Mr Attwood said he understood that "in every single case" where a boiler had to be replaced in Housing Executive properties due to the weather, that would be carried out by this weekend.

"What will remain is secondary work like replacing ceilings," he added.

Mr Cuddy admitted that his organisation had been "caught slightly on the back foot" by the initial scale of the problems.

"We have learned lessons from this clearly," Mr Cuddy added.

"What we did do is very quickly extended our emergency service capability - we relocated to a bigger building and we tooled up on the staff resourcing and the telephony and eventually we did get on top of it.

"But it was a very challenging time for us, our contractors, and no doubt our tenants as well."