The lack of affordable and sustainable housing is one of the most vivid examples of the wider stasis within policy and decision-making in Northern Ireland. Failing to address the critical needs of society has a knock-on effect on democracy and trust in political institutions, perpetuating a cycle of policy stagnation and political disillusionment.
Globally, a growing number of democracies are embracing deliberative models, such as citizens’ assemblies, as a tool for citizen engagement and policy development. Could empowering communities through a citizens’ assembly structure be key in gaining momentum after decades of political inertia?
Citizens’ assemblies have been on the rise as policy and decision-makers recognise the untapped potential in empowering citizens to have their say on issues that directly impact their lives. In the UK, over 30 deliberative democracy processes have been actioned over the past five years on topics ranging from Climate change to covid-19 recovery. Belgium and France have launched permanent citizens’ assemblies while other countries such as Denmark, who have been holding “consensus conferences” since the 1980’s, have long recognised the value of wider citizen engagement in policy and decision-making.
In an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of deliberative democracy, and the potential for citizens’ assemblies in the context of Northern Ireland, participatory democracy platform The Civic Initiative actioned an 18 month project featuring a Citizens’ Forum on Housing.
The Civic Initiative was launched during the 25th anniversary year of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement to create a space for civic voice in the absence of the long-promised Civic Forum, and subsequent commitments from political parties to facilitate greater inclusion of civic society in policy processes. The project brings together a wide range of civic society organisations, academics, and community workers who designed a four-stage process: community-based forums and workshops to set the agenda, written submissions and surveys, a Citizens’ Forum, and recommendations.
For the first stage, the Civic Initiative held 34 community-based forums across Northern Ireland, and 4 forums in the border counties of Monaghan, Cavan, and Louth. 518 people took part in the forums, 61% reported that they had not taken part in a similar workshop before.
During these sessions participants self-selected the topics they wanted to discuss, and the issues related to them. Health, housing, and education were the dominant themes, followed by poverty and political institutions. It was notable that the least selected topic was ‘Culture’, selected as one of the three topics at just four out of 38 sessions. Yet culture often dominates our political and media landscape.
The selection of housing as a key issue by communities on the ground directly led to housing being selected as the topic for a citizens’ assembly structure.
The Citizens’ Forum on Housing brought together 84 citizens recruited by UK-based NGO Sortition Foundation using a postal lottery system. 25,000 letters of invitation were mailed to households across Northern Ireland inviting members of the public to register their interest. Participants were selected to be generally representative of Northern Ireland by gender, age, geographical location, ethnicity as well as community background, and educational attainment.
Asked why he signed up, participant Patrick Bell said he felt he had “a certain civic duty”, while the motivating factor for John Elmer Kerr was the topic of housing itself. “Housing is so important,” he shared, “housing really settles a community, it's the right of everyone to have a roof over their head.”
Forum member Alan Hughes did not expect to be selected and shared that when he first read the letter of invitation he had “no hesitation,” adding “I feel as an individual, as part of civic society, I have a responsibility to add my voice to what I think is a very important issue.”
Meeting over the course of three days, Forum members heard evidence and testimony from 18 expert speakers from a range of perspectives including construction workers, the housing executive, and housing rights groups. Members drafted over 60 policy recommendations and passed 38 by a consensus vote of 80 per cent. Their recommendations spanned accessibility, affordability and sustainability, but also included education, transport, community relations and political institutions. None of the citizens taking part had participated in a similar forum or assembly structure before.
The Citizens’ Forum on Housing agreed a shared vision that recognised the need for a holistic, cross-departmental approach to tackling the housing crisis:
To create a holistic people-centered housing system that provides accessible, affordable, safe, and energy-efficient homes to meet the needs of all individuals and households in a way that fosters greater community cohesion, and a shared sustainable future for all.
Their recommendations included:
Legislate to allow the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to borrow and access private finance to build more homes (92% in support).
Take forward an integrated approach for all new developments, to include housing, transport, green spaces and access to other public services including schools and healthcare (91%).
Demolish properties deemed unfit for human habitation that cannot be redeveloped or refurbished within 18 months (85%).
Seek cross-border investment from the Irish government to improve water infrastructure in Northern Ireland (85%).
Remove VAT charges for renovations, upgrades and retrofitting old properties (80%).
Provide an accessible homelessness intervention hub that offers support to people who are at risk of homelessness but have not met all criteria yet (80%).
The recommendation with the highest level of consensus was not directly related to housing but rather to reform Stormont so that no one party can collapse the government (94%).
“The people who were chosen for it really got involved, really took it to heart in terms of all aspects of the community … there was a great sense of camaraderie,” said Kerr. Bell added that, “It was the opportunity to engage, whatever the topic would have been, I probably would have said yes … the amount I knew about the homeless crisis was pretty small before we got together, afterwards I kind of felt like a bit of an expert.”
The wider benefits from citizens' assemblies
Citizens' assemblies can deliver policy recommendations that have public buy-in and strengthen democracy through increased political participation. 54% of participants in the Citizens’ Forum on Housing expressed that they now felt more inclined to engage in politics. A third were non-voters.
Citizens’ assemblies are a modern incarnation of an old idea and can vary greatly in size, deliberation period, and scope, but at their core they typically involve 50-100 citizens, recruited through random selection, tasked with answering a set question over a particular period of time. Some assemblies deliver recommendations directly to parliaments, others to wider civil society. Theorists argue that deliberation can expand the agenda and provide new options, and that faith in the democratic process will be enhanced as people who deliberate become empowered and feel that their government truly is “of the people”.
Having experienced a citizens’ assembly firsthand, 91% of the Citizens’ Forum on Housing endorsed the use of citizens’ assemblies by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Participatory democracy is about ensuring citizens are afforded the opportunity to be involved in decisions that impact their lives, it is not a threat to representative democracy but rather complements it.
Following the success of the Citizens’ Forum on Housing, the Civic Initiative commissioned Lucidtalk to poll the public for attitudes toward deliberative democracy structures. 69% expressed support for the use of citizens’ assemblies by the Northern Ireland assembly. Of note is that those opposed expressed scepticism of how representative an assembly can be, there are valid concerns over how and who is selected that can only be addressed by an open, transparent selection process as actioned by the Civic Initiative through Sortition.
Northern Ireland’s political parties already committed to the use of citizen assemblies in New Decade, New Approach, a commitment that the Assembly has yet to fulfil. The Citizens’ Forum on Housing provides a blueprint, and demonstrates not only that assemblies can be effective, but also that there is public appetite across communities to be a part of them.
Rather than see assemblies as interference, policy and decision-makers can use these structures to their benefit, road testing new ideas, testing public opinion, and importantly strengthening trust in political institutions. Stormont is currently examining the tricky question of reforming Northern Ireland’s political institutions; a citizens’ assembly would be an ideal vehicle for testing public opinion of potential changes and building consensus. It is a tool for political representatives, not a weapon to challenge their power.
As a post-conflict society with low levels of trust in politics, citizens’ assemblies could prove particularly beneficial in Northern Ireland, promoting a shared purpose that can help members of society struggling to overcome historical divisions. Perhaps there are no candidates better suited to find solutions than those most affected.
Read the full Civic Initiative report here
Emma DeSouza, Founder and Co-Facilitator, Civic Initiative. Emma is a journalist, award-winning campaigner, and peace activist who changed UK law in a landmark human rights case relating to the Good Friday Agreement. She is the founder and co-facilitator of deliberative democracy platform The Civic Initiative, Director of the Northern Ireland Emerging Leaders Program at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York, and a democracy project manager at Swedish think tank Global Policy Research Group.