asked the Minister for Local Government whether he will take steps to ensure that local authorities do not operate restrictive provisions in their housing priority codes against residents of Northern Ireland who feel obliged by events in Northern Ireland to take up residence here.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Housing Priority Codes.
84.
Housing authorities are required by law to allocate tenancies of their dwellings in accordance with a scheme of letting priorities the terms of which are decided by them and approved by me under the Housing Act, 1966. Most of the urban housing authorities have found it necessary to include in their schemes a clause restricting lettings to residents of their areas in order to protect the interests of families who are longest on their waiting lists. It has been my general policy to encourage authorities to get rid of these restrictive clauses as soon as it is practicable for them to do so and I will be prepared to consider sympathetically any proposal which any housing authority may themselves make to amend their schemes so as to modify the operation of a residency clause in this or any other way.
Most of the approved schemes of letting priorities include a special waiver clause in respect of emergency cases. I have no doubt that, where genuine hardship arises for a particular family from Northern Ireland who may be left homeless through no fault of their own, housing authorities would be ready to operate the emergency re-housing clause in favour of such a family and they would not require my approval to do this.