Northern Ireland

Housing Executive spends £40m on legal costs in five years

SDLP assembly member Patsy McGlone
SDLP assembly member Patsy McGlone SDLP assembly member Patsy McGlone

Concerns have been raised after it emerged that the Housing Executive has spent more than £40m on legal fees in the past five years.

The housing body is responsible for around 86,000 properties across the north.

It has now emerged that it has paid out £40,678,000 on a range of legal costs over the last five years.

Figures obtained by Mid Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone through an assembly question reveal that the vast majority of the total, more than £38.6m, goes towards external legal advice.

In the year 2015/16, the housing authority rang up legal costs of £7.3m.

In 2016/17 and 2017/18 the figure was also more than £7m while in 2018/19 it had risen to £8.4m.

The 2019/20 tally topped £9.9m.

External costs include house and land sale fees, contract procurement, tenant/non tenant legal court costs, urban renewal related fees and public liability claims costs.

Mr McGlone said the figures will bring little to people who are homeless.

“It's not much reassurance to the 12,000 odd households that are homeless,” he said.

“The Housing Executive appears to spending money as if its going out of fashion on legal fees."

Mr McGlone suggested that some of the cash could be used “in both the public and private sector on properties that have fallen into disrepair and do improvements to prevent fuel poverty and give people a decent home”.

He intends to refer the matter to the Northern Ireland Audit Office.

A spokesman for the Housing Executive said: “We have a small, internal legal department to provide specialist legal advice across the complete range of our statutory functions.

“This is supported by external legal services in areas that include land and regeneration issues, court action against tenants and non-tenants, contractual issues, public liability claims and procurement issues.

“The figures include costs for salaries and overheads of our internal legal department and the external costs related to the conduct of litigation and the provision of legal advice and assistance by the external providers.”