Seven Towers group use Budget Analysis to strengthen their campaign

PPR and the Seven Towers Residents Group recently conducted their first piece of human rights budget analysis on the current plans by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to install PvC cladding to the exterior fabric of the Seven Towers.  The analysis focuses on whether the plans by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive are capable of progressively realising their right to housing using the maximum available resources as required by international human rights law. The results of their investigations demonstrate that the plans fail to discharge government’s human rights obligations to the residents. Ann Blyberg, a panelist at last year’s ‘The Right to Housing: A People’s Inquiry’ event and an expert in human rights budget analysis, commented on the report; 

“When a government says it can’t afford to take steps necessary to realise rights, knowing what the government is currently spending or planning to spend, and on what, is critical to assessing whether that’s true or whether something can, in fact, be done.  Getting relevant government budget figures and understanding them doesn’t always have to be difficult.  Sometimes the important figures are few and readily available; the challenge is simply understanding what they mean.  With this report, the PPR Project has shown what specific figures mean, and how a strong human rights argument, with very practical implications for people’s lives, can be developed from those few key figures in a government’s budget.” 

Click here to view Seven Towers Budget Analsysis Report