Northern Irish landlords working with police to tackle violence aimed at social housing

NIFHA said the reports are vital for housing associations to be able to investigate and assess anti-social behaviour, and therefore it is crucial that the information is received in a “timely fashion”.

The closer working arrangement follows rising protests in Northern Ireland, and the June rioting in Ballymena, County Antrim, where people’s homes came under attack from anti-immigration protesters.

At the time, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) reported that around 50 households had received assistance when disorder broke out, leading to condemnation from senior leaders from across the housing sector in Northern Ireland.

This was in addition to around 14 families being provided with emergency accommodation.

The PSNI’s deputy chief constable Bobby Singleton, who attended the meeting, said: “This was a productive and positive meeting at the request of the association as to how we can work together following this summer’s disorder and increasing protests.

“As a result of the meeting, a number of actions were agreed and are being taken forward with the aim of improving relationships and information sharing between police and housing associations.”

Speaking on BBC News’ State of Us podcast recently, communities minister Gordon Lyons said racial tensions in Northern Ireland were being fuelled by the housing shortage and that he is “looking at all of the different levers” available to him to increase housing supply.

The minister highlighted one proposal he would be bringing to the executive is to use “surplus land” owned by the public sector to build more social homes.

A spokesperson for NIFHA said: “We welcome these commitments from the PSNI as an important step in ensuring our sectors are working collaboratively to ensure sustainable and thriving communities throughout Northern Ireland.”

A recent debate at Stormont focused on rising hate crime incidents in Northern Ireland over the summer, and part of it concerned the relationship between hate crimes and housing provision.

Assembly member Matthew O’Toole has claimed that a paramilitary group in Northern Ireland was claiming the right to say who lives in an area, and acts like a “de facto, quasi or crypto housing association”.

Mr O’Toole, a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, made the comments as part of his concern about the strength of the Sentencing Bill.