Landlords getting paid £500k plus

SOME private landlords and companies were paid over half-a-million pounds from the Housing Executive last year, it’s been revealed.
By The Newsroom
Published 22nd Oct 2012, 19:15 BST

Housing Minister Nelson McCausland revealed the top ten amounts of Housing Benefit paid to landlords/companies across Northern Ireland during 2011/12 were £545,942; £521,399; £521,344; £483,647; £419,552; £369,421; £359,760; £357,791; £351,108 and £336,767.

The revelation follows a report by the Sentinel in July, which revealed private landlords were paid nearly £1.5m by the Housing Executive in 2011/12 to provide temporary accommodation in Londonderry.

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Back in 2007/8 the people of Northern Ireland paid Londonderry landlords £265,169 to provide temporary/emergency accommodation to housing benefit recipients but this rocketed to £892,185 last year - a three fold increase.

The increase in Londonderry’s Waterside was even higher. In 2007/8 private Waterside landlords received £14,293 in housing benefit payments. But this increased to £100,138 in 2011/12 - a seven fold increase.

The people of Northern Ireland forked out £2,476,915 to private Londonderry landlords who provided emergency accommodation to homeless people over the five year period: £1,404,007 in the Waterloo Place Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) district; £867,880 in the Collon Terrace district; and £205,028 in the Waterside district.