Ulster Unionist MLA Andy Allen has called on the Communities Minister to stop seeking to score party political points and instead take action to deliver an adequate level of high quality social housing.
Andy Allen, who is his Party’s Communities spokesperson, said:
“Today the Northern Ireland Assembly debated a motion calling on the Communities Minister, Paul Givan, to bring forward a replacement to the Housing Selection Scheme that ensures a fairer and more transparent system of assessing housing need.
“This is a pressing issue and one that will only continue to grow. Whilst the Ulster Unionist Party fully agrees the Housing Selection Scheme needs to be replaced with a fairer and more transparent system, we cannot avoid the fact that unless we commit to building an appropriate level of housing, any new system will ultimately fail.
“During the debate I raised the issue of the Social Size criteria – commonly known as the Bedroom Tax, post mitigation. Instead of addressing this serious issue, the best the Minister could offer was to resort to petty Party Politics by attempting to point fingers over the bedroom tax and blame it on the Ulster Unionist Party`s previous association with the Conservative Party as part of the UCUNF arrangement.
“I would again ask the Minister; can we really penalise individuals who are unable to downsize before the mitigation package ends? It is not their fault that we as a society have failed them by not building enough social housing. Paul Givan would do better spending his time trying to address this issue rather than seeking to score political points.”