Debate contribution: Housing: North Antrim
Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on .
- MLA
- Mr Gordon Lyons
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 20 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Housing: North Antrim
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4381027
Read the official Assembly record
Text
First, housing is a priority. No one can come into this Department and say that it is not. As I have outlined, there are things that we can do to improve housing in Northern Ireland. Housing has a hugely important impact on the lives of people. If someone has a warm home to live in, it gives them huge advantages moving forward. It is about having a safe place to live in. Too many children are growing up without the security of a home. Far too many people are in temporary accommodation, being moved from place to place every few weeks or every few months. Too many people have to move away from where they are living as well. As I have outlined, I want to make sure that we look at empty homes in Northern Ireland. Scotland and Wales have taken initiatives to ensure that they can tackle the high number of empty homes that existed there, some with considerable success. We also need to look at the funding model for the Housing Executive. Importantly — this will require a cross-departmental approach — we need to look at planning. We need to look at where and how we build our houses and to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place so that we can make housing as affordable as possible and allow people to get on the housing ladder. Those are some of the things that I hope to tackle during my time in office.
248 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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