“This is a very positive day for the people of this community and indeed for all communities segregated by physical barriers. The residents who live here have decided to reject the fear and negativity that epitomise peace walls and to embrace hope and a better way of life.” Those were the words of a community activist in north Belfast earlier this year as the first “peace line” – an eight-foot brick wall that had stood for 30 years - was demolished.

There are still a total of 109 peace walls - the border barriers between Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods - across Northern Ireland. More than half of the remaining peace calls in Belfast are in north Belfast, which suffered some of the worst violence during the Troubles.

Housing organisations have been, and remain, a major influence within our divided communities. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which owned the peace wall demolished in August, as well as 20 other peace walls, was instrumental in brokering the deal with local communities. In 2013, the Northern Ireland assembly pledged that it would remove all peace walls within 10 years. This is ambitious, but the first example of a wall being demolished will hopefully lead to more of these physical barriers being removed, with housing organisations continuing to play a big role.

The current housing selection scheme in Northern Ireland was established in 1974, not long after the NIHE was set up, as a result of the civil rights grievances in the late 1960s over allegations of religious discrimination in housing allocations.

The scheme, operated by the NIHE and housing associations, has had a few tweaks since then but still operates on a points system that allows applicants to choose specific areas and, inevitably, choose one community or another.

Arguably, this system has sustained division, with most people choosing to remain within their own communities. A review in 2012 called for choice-based lettings, which would, in effect encourage people to bid for properties outside their immediate neighbourhoods and perhaps encourage communities to live together by choice.

One of the main criticisms of the current scheme has been the way it encourages people to “chase points”, with 200 points awarded to people who can prove they have been intimidated. Since the review was published three years ago little has changed, although the assembly has recently been debating the need to change the scheme.



There has also been disagreement about what will happen to the NIHE. In 2013 the then minister for social development announced a social housing reform programme to be implemented by 2015. A media frenzy ensued, with declarations that the NIHE would be abolished. But it still exists. The organisation owns and manages nearly 90,000 dwellings across the province and still retains many powers that local authorities have in other parts of the UK, including responsibility for homelessness. But it stopped building new social housing in 2002, with housing associations taking on this task, and it faces major problems. According to Savills, existing NIHE stock needs investment of £7bn over the next 30 years and nearly half its stock needs immediate attention. But there is still reluctance to change to status of the NIHE to enable it to borrow against its considerable assets.

Recent estimates suggest that if we build at the present rate – 5,700 houses a year, across all sectors – it will take 20 years to accommodate the 40,000 households on the current waiting list. Things move slowly in Northern Ireland, and with every policy development caution prevails.

However, the removal of one wall is a significant step in the right direction and mechanisms may now be in place to further the objective of removing all of the peace lines by 2023. This example proves that a sensitive approach involving intense negotiations with local communities living on the interfaces has worked in this instance.

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