Debate contribution: Housing: North Belfast
Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on .
- MLA
- Mr Gordon Lyons
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 9 April 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Housing: North Belfast
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4482324
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for securing the debate, and I welcome the opportunity to respond to it. This is the first Adjournment debate for a number of Members, and it is the first time other than at Question Time that I have spoken in this place as Communities Minister. I am really pleased that we have the opportunity to talk about this matter, because I recognise many of the issues and concerns that the Member and others have raised about housing in North Belfast. The reality, of course, is that many of the issues are replicated throughout the country, but I recognise that they are particularly acute in North Belfast. The issues are many: the demand for social homes and the increase in waiting lists; the availability and cost of private rented homes; growing homelessness pressures; the difficulty of delivering the necessary infrastructure and finding suitable land to provide new homes; and ensuring the quality and safety of existing homes. As the Minister with responsibility for housing, I know that those issues and concerns are not faced in just one constituency: they exist in our cities and towns, urban and rural, and the need and demand for good, affordable and sustainable homes is currently not being met. Housing in all places is a priority for me, and it should be a priority across the Executive. For that reason, housing must be considered as a whole system, and there must be a collective commitment and action across government, alongside private-sector and community and voluntary sector partners. The barriers are well rehearsed. Right now, thousands of homes are not being built because of limitations on water infrastructure. Getting suitable land can be difficult. The planning process can significantly impact on delivery. As a result, thousands of people struggle to find a suitable home, and that problem, unfortunately, is only getting worse. We cannot end up like Dublin or London, where the failures of housing supply mean that economic growth benefits only the property-owning few and where people with good jobs struggle to put a roof over their head, never mind buy their own home. Removing those barriers requires coordinated action and investment across the Executive; otherwise, they will only squeeze housing supply further. The Executive have to deliver. That means focusing on what is important, and that includes providing homes for our people. The whole-system approach is fundamental to the draft housing supply strategy on which I am working. It will provide the framework to bring about the system changes that we need. I will prioritise putting that much-needed strategy in place. We have to be clear, however, that it will work only if we have buy-in from other Departments that prioritises the changes that we need to make in order to deliver the homes that we need. My second priority is to deliver more social homes. We need more social housing. The year before last, we started 1,950 homes. In the past financial year, over 1,500 homes were started in partnership with the Housing Executive and housing associations. I am pleased that the target was met, but 1,500 homes is not enough. We need to protect the social homes that we have and start about 2,500 houses a year. I commit now to keep building more homes where they are needed. Despite all the other financial pressures, I will continue to spend most of my capital budget on new social homes. I want us to be in a position to build 35,000 more homes over the next 15 years. Over the next few years, I will put the foundations of that ambitious programme in place, working to increase the rate at which we build homes. The commitment to social home delivery can be seen in North Belfast, where, over the next three years, 809 social housing units are programmed to start under the social housing development programme. My third priority is to take action to protect the Housing Executive so that it can continue to provide decent homes for our households and families. Sometimes, I think that the issue has been talked about for so long that people forget how important it is, or maybe the numbers seem so big or the Housing Executive seems such an integral part of our lives that we cannot get our heads around the real danger that it might fail. Given the current state of its homes and rental income, the Housing Executive has warned that some of its homes might become unfit for people to live in. We cannot accept a decline in the quality and quantity of our social housing. That would be catastrophic for our communities and our towns and cities, but, most importantly, it would be catastrophic for tens of thousands of people who will never be able to get a social home. I want to prioritise finding a solution that will place the Housing Executive on a sustainable financial footing, and getting that done is really important for me. It will enable additional, much-needed investment to improve the quality and enhance the energy efficiency of the Housing Executive's homes. An example of driving such innovation forward can be seen already in North Belfast, where, as part of a pilot, the Housing Executive is building six semi-detached homes at Sunningdale Gardens. They will really help in terms of lower heating bills, savings from reduced fuel costs and more comfortable homes. The next issue that I want to address is improving the response to homelessness. That sector is under significant strain, manifested by the rapid increase in the need for temporary accommodation. I want to make sure that homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurrent. I want to support a shift to prevention, but we have an immediate issue with the use of temporary accommodation. That is money not being spent on homelessness prevention or supported housing schemes. Staying in insecure temporary accommodation is not good enough for families and puts them, especially children, under huge strain and pressure. It will take time to achieve these ambitions, so our short-term focus must be on continuing to support those currently in crisis. I want to mention the Supporting People scheme. High-quality, effective housing support can make a real difference to people's lives and enable them to live more independently in the community. I have been out and about and have seen fantastic examples of the difference that that support can make in people's lives. That is why I made the decision last month to approve an additional £3 million in funding for the programme for the financial year. That additional funding is an acknowledgement of the need that exists in our society. In the couple of minutes that I have left, I will turn to some of the comments that Members have made. First of all, Ms Ní Chuilín asked me to be the advocate for housing need, and I hope that I have, to some extent, demonstrated that I understand and am determined to resolve some of the issues to make sure that we do not find ourselves in the position that others do. She highlighted clearly the situation that we find ourselves in, with a demand for 4,400 homes in the last financial year but only 655 new homes built. She is absolutely right to highlight the fact that local development plans will play an important part, but it is essential that we take a whole-of-government and a holistic approach to the issue to make sure that, essentially, we make it easier for people to get the land and build new homes on that land. Mr Brett talked about ambition, and it is really important that we are ambitious in this area because the demand and the need is so great. He also raised the issue of the parties that are absent today. I will not go into that in too much detail other than to say that it is surprising that so many parties have not turned up to take part in the debate, which is so important, not just for this constituency but across Northern Ireland. I agree with what he said about intimidation points and the need for that system to be reviewed. I will receive the report and research on that, and I have great sympathy with the points that he made. He raised issues in relation to tower blocks as well. When we have such housing need, it does not make sense for us to remove so many potential homes for people if we are not in a position to replace them. Therefore, we will, of course, consider that issue. Miss McAllister was absolutely right to raise the anti-poverty strategy; it is an important issue. The issues that she raised around derelict buildings will be part of the overall housing supply strategy. We have to make sure that we can build new homes but that we also look at the homes that are in existence and bring them up to an appropriate standard. Mr Kelly talked about identifying land. We are looking at land that the Department holds, as well as other public land, so that we can make the most of it. He mentioned co-ownership, and one of the first things that I did was raise the co-ownership limit in Northern Ireland. I will have more to say in the coming days on the building safety issues that he raised. I agree with a number of the comments that Mr Kingston made, which others raised as well. It is important that we see more social housing sites being brought forward so that we can make sure that we are addressing the issue by having the land and making sure that we are able to build on it. I am committed to a genuinely ambitious and strategic programme of work that will deliver results for people. I will need support from Executive colleagues in order to do that. I am not here to tinker around the edges. I want to see thousands more affordable homes being built and lived in over the next three years, and I hope that I will have the support of other parties to do that.
1,700 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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