Debate contribution: Housing Emergency

Debate contribution by Mr John Stewart on 15 October 2024.

MLA

Mr John Stewart

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

15 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Housing Emergency

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4592871

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to continue the debate, which is worthwhile and, obviously, emotional for many of those who are involved. So far, regardless of disagreements, there has been a collective will among spokespersons that we need to see change. That collectiveness needs to be emulated in the Executive across all Departments. The Member for North Antrim made that point. Housing is not just about bricks and mortar; it is about dignity, security and opportunity. Yet, for far too many families and individuals across Northern Ireland, the right to adequate, affordable and safe housing, sadly, remains out of reach. Northern Ireland faces a housing emergency. The waiting list for social housing continues to grow, with over 47,000 households waiting, many of them in urgent need. They are not just numbers but families, children, elderly people and vulnerable individuals who are being forced to live in inadequate or temporary housing conditions. Across the Chamber, we all know that the many people who come into our offices daily are just crying out for support. Many of them have points far in excess of the number that would ordinarily guarantee them the house that they need, but they cannot get that house because the stock is simply not there. For each of those people, this is a crisis and an emergency. Years of underinvestment coupled with growing demand and a lack of housing construction, together with the right-to-buy scheme, have created a perfect storm. It is incumbent on the Executive to collectively find a long-term solution and strategy to tackle the growing housing waiting lists. My party colleague Andy Allen elaborated on many aspects of the matter that relate to the Department for Communities, but I will touch on it from an infrastructure point of view, as we look to tackle the biggest obstacles to new and affordable homes. First, the limits affecting the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's ability to borrow are hamstringing it in its fundamental role. In the 1950s and 1960s, it built, on average, 15,000 new homes a year. We are nowhere near that now; in fact, we are at zero. We need to begin to replicate what we did in the '50s and '60s. That will be achieved by, first, opening up the ability to borrow and then building on the back of that. The second obstacle — a number of Members discussed it — is in the limitations on our infrastructure. Number one among them is the capacity issue at Northern Ireland Water. In East Antrim, for example, whole areas are being blocked because there simply is not enough capacity in the system. Across Northern Ireland, tens of thousands of houses are stuck in that process because there simply is not capacity for them. In my intervention on the Member for Strangford, I talked about the developer-led aspect of that. The Member made the valid point that developers are offering solutions, but, for smaller housing associations with smaller projects, such as first-time affordable homes or social houses, the bandwidth and budget for them to be developer-led are simply not there, and those necessary projects are therefore being held up in process. Something fundamentally needs to be tackled, and that is one of the biggest infrastructure issues that collectively affects the entire Executive in housing terms — affordable, social and first-time-buyers' homes — and across the economic piece. So many aspects of our society are being held back by that. The second limitation is in planning. We have waxed lyrical here on a number of occasions about the problems of the planning system. It has been 10 years since planning was devolved to councils, and, sadly, that simply is not delivering and something has to change. We talk about local area plans. They were meant to be produced by 2019, but most councils are still developing them. We need a strategy that will encourage single-occupancy dwellings, social housing projects and first-time-buyer projects, rather than just big housing projects, to go ahead. That simply has to be tackled, and, if the Department needs to get involved from the centre, we would welcome that. Earlier in the debate, my party colleague made the point on the housing aspect, but, collectively, the Executive need to tackle housing as a cross-departmental issue and do all they can to resolve it.

717 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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