Homeless Connect, the membership organisation for Northern Ireland’s homelessness sector, has called on the Northern Ireland Executive to direct any Barnett consequentials from the UK Autumn Budget to homelessness prevention, a call that matters to association and institute professionals as a membership body turns a UK funding announcement into a regional policy request. It followed an announcement of a further 432 million pounds for rough sleeping in the Budget.

Homeless Connect represents providers across the homelessness sector in Northern Ireland. It does not publish commercial financials.

Barnett consequentials are additional funds allocated automatically to the devolved administrations when the UK government changes spending on devolved public services in England. They are not ring fenced, but Homeless Connect believes the connection in this case is direct and compelling.

In August the organisation wrote to every Executive minister, warning that providers face funding pressures of 8 million to 10 million pounds. Chief executive Nicola McCrudden will meet Communities Minister Gordon Lyons next week.

Nicola McCrudden said, “Rough sleeping is not inevitable. With sustained investment in housing and support, the Northern Ireland Executive can make a bold commitment that no one should be left to sleep rough in our towns and cities.”

The call links a UK spending decision to a devolved funding gap rather than making a general appeal.

More than 64,000 people in Northern Ireland have statutory homelessness status, according to Inside Housing. The Chartered Institute of Housing Northern Ireland has warned that annual housing statistics are trending in the wrong direction and called for urgent action, according to Inside Housing.

McCrudden said, “Allowing any consequential to disappear into wider budgets would be a profound lost opportunity.”

For the sector, a membership body that ties its request to a named funding mechanism gives ministers a specific decision to make, which is harder to defer than a general call for more money. For the sector’s providers specifically, a prevention focus and multiyear funding address the reserves and fundraising that services say they have largely exhausted.

Whether the Executive allocates any consequential to prevention, rather than absorbing it into wider budgets, will indicate how far a membership body can influence devolved spending across the sector.

Source: Inside Housing