Northern Ireland Housing Executive

Prior to the establishment of the Housing Executive, public housing in Northern Ireland was managed primarily by local councils. Only ratepayers and their spouses could vote in council elections - sub-tenants, lodgers, and adults living with their parents could not - so allocation of housing was "distorted for political ends". This largely took the form of discrimination against Catholics to ensure Unionist control of councils, opposition to which was a major plank of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement of the late 1960s. Lord Cameron's report concluded: <blockquote> A rising sense of continuing injustice and grievance among large sections of the Catholic population in Northern…