Debate contribution: Housing Supply Strategy

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 9 December 2024.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

9 December 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statements

Heading

Housing Supply Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4698058

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I wish to make a statement to the Assembly about housing supply in Northern Ireland. We are all aware of the crisis that we face in housing: a large and growing waiting list for social homes; inflation-busting rent increases in the private rented sector; low-quality and poor energy efficiency; and record numbers in temporary accommodation. There are too many barriers in matters like planning and infrastructure, and there is an increasing sense of despair for many who simply want a home to call their own. Fixing that is at the top of my agenda, because those issues impact on our ability to deal with some of the most pressing challenges that we face: poverty, education, deprivation, health and giving people the opportunity and ability to progress in life. We need to tackle the housing crisis head-on. We need to take action that will deal with the root causes of the problem. We need a new approach. For too long, there has been no joined-up, cross-departmental approach to housing, but that changes now. I am pleased to announce that the Executive have agreed to approve a housing supply strategy for Northern Ireland. The strategy is a 15-year framework for the whole-system change that is needed. It will deliver a housing system that can provide 100,000 homes over that period. It will deliver more social homes; it will deliver better homes; and it will deliver better outcomes for our people. The strategy is the culmination of considerable hard work, collaboration and co-design. I thank all those who have worked with my Department to develop it. Over the past few months, I have met ministerial colleagues with key remits relating to housing supply. I also thank them for their support. There is a real commitment to look at how we can address the key challenges, such as waste water capacity, skills, finance and planning. As it is an Executive strategy, all Departments now have a role to play, and I expect to see that reflected in Budget allocations and in the investment strategy. Our vision is ambitious and rightly so. We now have a 15-year framework in place that aims to deliver at least 100,000 homes and more, if necessary. It is grounded in the principle of taking a whole-system approach to housing supply. All Ministers have agreed the strategy, and the necessary actions fall across a range of Departments. I know that they are committed to making the changes needed, and I look forward to working with them further over the next years. As an Executive, we must not let the opportunity pass us by. As housing Minister, I have not been waiting for the document to be agreed before the work starts. I am already taking forward a range of actions and will shortly start many others. I take the opportunity today to set out some of those actions in line with each of the five supporting objectives of the strategy framework. The first objective is about ensuring that we increase supply and affordable options across all housing tenures. I have spoken on numerous occasions about my commitment to the delivery of more social homes. In the past five years, my Department has invested over £750 million, which has started 8,341 new social homes. I will continue to press for the capital budget necessary to bring our social new build programme back to where it should be. However, I am not standing still on the issue. I will make sure that we do everything possible to innovate and maximise delivery with what we have. Housing associations, the Housing Executive, developers, the construction industry, local councils and beyond all have their part in this too. I will continue to prioritise capital spending on delivering much-needed social homes, but I also want to deliver for people and hard-working families who cannot get or do not want a social home by offering them safe, secure and affordable alternatives. One of those alternatives is intermediate rent. That is a new housing product for Northern Ireland that I was pleased to announce a few months ago. It aims to provide good, secure and affordable rented housing to lower-income households who cannot afford to buy or rent a home. I look forward to making rapid progress on that over the next few months. That housing is badly needed, so I want to start building those affordable, high-quality homes as quickly as possible. In recent years, we have seen rising house prices and mortgage costs, and I am committed to helping those who need a bit of extra support to own their own home. That is why my Department continues to provide significant funding to co-ownership, allocating £158 million in financial transactions capital (FTC) to assist over 4,400 people into home ownership over five years.

I have also increased the property value limit for properties that are eligible to be purchased through co-ownership to £195,000.

The second objective of the strategy is focused on preventing homelessness and ensuring that we prioritise housing options for those most in need. I have common cause with the Health Minister on this, and what we do is a vital support for our health service. During Homelessness Awareness Week, I set out my ambition to prioritise the prevention of homelessness, working closely with the Housing Executive and the wider sector to ensure that it is rare, brief and non-recurrent. I have been able to provide another £6·7 million for the Housing Executive to prevent the risk of homelessness service closures and to ensure that its statutory obligations can continue to be met. From next year, the Housing Executive will have a specific allocation for homelessness prevention, and, last week, I announced a goodwill grant of £150,000 to homelessness charities to ensure that they can support homeless households at Christmas. I also continue to look at innovative ways of using financial transactions capital. In line with this, I am pleased to announce the launch of the loan to acquire move-on accommodation scheme. That will make loans available to homeless organisations such as the Simon Community to buy houses for people who are currently homeless and living in hostels. Some of those people are incredibly vulnerable, and providing this wrap-around service is critical to their needs. Helping people to sustain their tenancies is another crucial aspect of housing need. The Supporting People programme plays a key role in helping our most vulnerable people live independently in their homes, and so I provided an additional £4·8 million of funding to sustain that programme this year. The third objective of the strategy is about ensuring that we do not focus just on the numbers of homes but that they are good-quality, safe and secure. I am taking action to protect and revitalise the Housing Executive and find a solution to place it on a sustainable financial footing so that it can continue to provide decent homes for our households and families for years to come. Doing that requires access to borrowing for the Housing Executive to enable the investment that is needed in its stock. I am actively pressing for a solution that will enable the Housing Executive to invest in its homes through a programme of retrofit to improve energy efficiency, increase routine and planned investment, and deal with maintenance backlogs. Those are all key issues that we know many of our constituents face daily. Our private rented sector has been one of the fastest-growing tenures over the past few years and is a vital part of our housing supply. The strategy sets out actions focused on putting tenants' needs at the heart of the sector and that ensure that it is suitable for a wider range of households. Earlier this year, I introduced regulations requiring smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms, and, just a few weeks ago, I brought more regulations requiring electrical safety checks. Over the next few months, to help tenants plan for the future and sustain their tenancy, I will restrict the frequency of rent increases to once in each 12-month period, with a three-month notice period. I will also introduce much longer notice-to-quit periods, as mandated by the Assembly, to greatly improve the security of tenure for individuals and families who privately rent. Our vision for the strategy takes a step beyond houses themselves and recognises the importance of creating thriving and inclusive communities. One key aspect of this work will be how we engage with local councils as they produce their new local development plans, which play a vital role in how places are shaped. My Department and the Housing Executive are working closely with local council planners to deliver the vision in this strategy and the new affordable housing policies through the new local development plans. The final objectives set out how I want to make sure that people can live in warm, safe homes without worrying about the cost of their fuel bills. Cold homes can lead to poor mental and physical health, and it is vital that we resolve this issue as we transition to a lower-carbon future. A key action that I am taking forward to address this is the delivery of a fuel poverty strategy, which I will begin consultation on later this week. It will set out proposals to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy well-being in the medium to long term. It proposes a series of measures to improve the energy efficiency of homes, including an ambitious new scheme for low-income and vulnerable households, and raising energy-efficiency standards. The draft fuel poverty strategy also proposes building capacity and collaborating to ensure that people can access advice and support, as well as protecting consumers. The publication of the housing supply strategy is a significant step forward in how the Executive act on housing. However, we do not stop here. All Departments must move to implementation, with commitment and a focus on delivery. That will be achieved through a series of detailed shorter-term action plans to set out what we need to do, who needs to do it and by when. Those will build upon the actions already outlined in the strategy, but they will not and cannot be developed in isolation by my Department. This is an important step forward, but I do not for one minute suggest that this is a silver bullet. Rather, it is a way forward; a commitment to work together to deal with this issue in a determined and collective way. We now have a strategy in place. We have a plan for the way ahead. I am focused on delivering on housing, and I hope that others will join me in that endeavour and ensure that we make a difference in the lives of the people whom we represent. I commend the statement to the House.

Santa delivers every year, and so do I. I am looking forward to making sure that we get things done. If you look at what I have said in the statement, you will see that we are getting things done. We have brought in those plans and policies, which will start to make a difference. As I said, this is a way forward. This is our pathway. The Member has rightly outlined all the things that we need to do. That is why we brought them all together in this plan and have got cross-departmental and cross-ministerial support for this. He is right to identify all of those issues, and we are making progress on each of those so that we can make that real difference, because that is what we are here to do. We have been waiting for change for too long.

I welcome the fact that the Member has welcome the strategy, and it is, of course, right that we need to make sure that we have the funding in place so that we can deliver on our ambition in the strategy. We have made good progress in year to get some of the funding that we need so that we have been able to increase our social housing target. This will be and is a cross-departmental plan. I will certainly be bidding for that resource, and I hope that other Ministers will give me that support so that we can meet our targets and really deal with the waiting lists that have been there for too long and have been growing.

In short, yes, it will. We are taking a coordinated and joined-up approach to make sure that we build more social homes and also more affordable homes in the Member's constituency. We need to ensure that we get the borrowing change when it comes to the Housing Executive so that it can also build more homes. It is a joined-up approach involving planning, infrastructure, land and all those issues. Delivery of the strategy will make a real difference in the lives of the people that the Member represents, because housing is one of the most pressing issues in her constituency. There has not been as much investment in east Belfast compared with other parts of the city. There is a considerable need in her constituency: I want to make sure that we deal with that, and this strategy is a way to do it.

I thank the Member for her welcome and for the "woo-hoo"; I think that that was the first time I have heard that in the Chamber. She is absolutely right to be excited, because this is a good news announcement and has the potential to make a significant difference. She is also right to highlight the fact that it is cross-departmental. I do not know whether there will be a line in each of the Department's plans, but, given that we have agreed that it is one of the most pressing issues, we need input from all the Departments. Justice, for example, has people moving from prisons into homes. Health has people in care who need more stable accommodation. We need the Department for the Economy to provide the skills to build more homes. Housing also has an impact on people's educational outcomes. That is why it is important that there is a joined-up approach. I hope that all Ministers will stand by the commitment that they have made and take the steps necessary to improve the situation. It is not of benefit just to the people who will, hopefully, live in the additional homes that we build; it will be of benefit to all Departments, because, if we can get housing right, we can give people a good start in life, and that impacts on everything that we do as we provide public services.

Yes, I believe that they will be. Obviously, that will go out and go through the proper process and due diligence. The Member has rightly highlighted the use of financial transactions capital, which is special government borrowing that, every year, we seem to send back. I believe that next year will be the first year that we will not be in that position because we are using it up. We are using it for the purposes for which it was intended. We are going to make a difference here, whether it is with the loan to acquire move-on accommodation scheme, which will save us money in the long term as well as help people's lives, or the intermediate rent, which is a product that has been absent from the market in Northern Ireland for far too long and that I am delighted that we have been able to bring in. It goes back to the point that we need to take a whole-system approach. It is not just about building more homes in the private rental sector and not just about more social homes; it is about using all the levers at our disposal, limited as some of those might be, and getting all of them to work together to deliver for people in Northern Ireland.

The first thing that we need to do is to make sure we have more housing supply in Northern Ireland full stop. Everything in the strategy is moving us towards a position where we have more homes, which will help everybody.

The loan to acquire move-on accommodation scheme that I have announced today will also help, because it will allow charities to purchase properties and, by doing so, put people in them who might otherwise be dependent on temporary accommodation. We spend far too much money on temporary accommodation. That money could be better spent on homelessness prevention and on other public services. I am determined that we do something about that. We are looking at all the options. We have come up with innovative solutions that will make a difference, and I look forward to getting Executive colleagues' support so that we can implement them.

Absolutely. The Member is right to mention the manifesto commitments that each of us makes when seeking election to this place. It was certainly my desire to make sure that we helped those who are struggling and those who are sometimes caught out and feel that they do not get the necessary help. Ultimately, increasing housing supply and making sure that we have more affordable housing options and more social homes will help families. We are all aware that one of the biggest outgoings that people have is their housing costs, so it is absolutely right that we do everything that we can to drive those costs down. The strategy can do that by making sure that we have a greater supply of such homes. That takes me back to the point about intermediate rent. There are those who may not be eligible for social housing and find it exceptionally difficult to get into the private rented sector. Intermediate rent uses financial transactions capital to allow a discounted rate for private rentals that can be built using that resource. All those things together, including increasing supply, help working families, and I am determined to deliver that help.

First, we want to make sure that we spend every pound that we have in the most cost-effective way possible. Although the details are to be ironed out, we have our fuel poverty strategy and the additional elements that I have mentioned today, from which action plans will flow. We need to use public resource in the best possible way. I am keen that we ensure not only that we have homes for people to live in but that we have the most energy-efficient homes possible. When it comes to housing need, housing costs may be a huge outgoing, but there is also the cost of heating homes, so it absolutely makes sense to invest as much as we can in improving their energy efficiency. I am committed to doing that.

The Member is right to raise that issue. Since I came into office, I have probably spoken to UK Government Ministers about it more than about anything else, and I have done so at all levels, because doing that could be truly transformational. We have the stock against which we can borrow, so we need to get on and do that. I will continue to lobby and continue to push. I have been working with the Finance Minister on doing so. However, if our Government want to do something that will make a significant change for people in Northern Ireland at little to no cost to the Treasury, there should be confirmation of the borrowing power for the Housing Executive so that it can get on and build again. The Member can be assured that, for as long as I am in post, I will continue to press and press for those changes because I want more social homes in Northern Ireland, and I want the Housing Executive to have the ability to build them.

The Member is absolutely right to raise that in relation to social homes and to the private sector. We see significant numbers, including in my constituency, of homes being unable to be progressed because of waste-water constraints. That is, absolutely, mentioned in the strategy. There is a determination to do something about that. I will continue to press Executive colleagues on that, and, as the Member rightly says, on the issue of planning because, even where we have capacity in our waste water system — there are still many areas in Northern Ireland that do — planning can be a huge drag. We need to do everything that we can to make it as simple and straightforward as possible to build more homes in Northern Ireland. Waste water is part of that, as is planning.

It is important that all due diligence is done and that homes are appropriate for those who live in them. When it comes to social homes, considerable work will be carried out by the housing associations on that. We need to have proper analysis of the need in Northern Ireland, and that will change over the course of the strategy. The figures may well also change as we look at what is appropriate, what we need more of and where extra resource is needed. It is important that we have that flexibility in the strategy.

Yes, housing associations will be a key partner in making sure that we deliver on the objectives in the strategy. I thank the housing associations that have been involved in the production of today's plan. There is no doubt that they are a valuable partner. They play a significant role in delivering social housing. I want to ensure that they have the right support to do that and that they look for ways in which they can innovate and drive efficiency in housebuilding. As I said in response to an earlier question, we need to do everything that we can to make sure that it is as simple, easy and straightforward as possible to build more homes. Housing associations and, hopefully soon, the Housing Executive, as well as the private rental sector, all need to be up for that challenge.

First, I hope that the Member recognises that, when it comes to my record on housing, this is not just about nice words or platitudes. If you look at what has been achieved over the last number of months, you will see that there has been significant progress in what we have been able to do in that area. Look at the loan to acquire move-on accommodation, intermediate rent, more support for social housing and increased funding for homelessness. In all of those issues, I have demonstrated my commitment. The Member is right to acknowledge that there are ambitious targets in here. He is also right to acknowledge that there are barriers. Waste water is a barrier to achieving some of the targets that we have set for ourselves. However, the important thing is that we have identified them, we recognise them and there is a collective will to deal with those issues. There is no point ignoring it. It is in there for a reason. We recognise that it is a problem, and we need to deal with it. We need to make use of the area in which there is still capacity in the system and, at the same time, make sure that we take action to do it. We have to do it. We need homes for people in Northern Ireland. You have rightly highlighted one of the barriers, and I want us to work together to break down those barriers.

Those details are yet to be worked out. However, in developing the policy, we wanted to make sure that there was security, because six months, a year or two years is not always enough time for people to get back on their feet. We do not want to throw somebody back into another part of the system. This is about helping people to move on and to be able to get themselves to a better place. I have taken action on some of the private rented sector issues that the Member has raised. We will continue to do that. Ultimately, however, to really tackle the issues that we face, we need to increase housing supply. That is what the statement is all about.

Yes. I have raised that directly with the Minister for the Economy in the conversations that we have had about that. I recognise that it is an issue. I know the area that the Member represents well. I know the concerns about and the challenges in the cost of housing. Where specific interventions may be needed in particular areas, we will always be happy to look at those. This is a broad framework of where we need to go when the action plans are developed. After that, the Member will have the ability to have her say and give her views to make sure that we address some of the issues that may be constituency-specific.

Absolutely, I do. In the House, we should put people first, above everything else. We have, in the Chamber, some very difficult targets that, in many cases, will be next to impossible to meet, and those targets should not be met on the backs of people who are already struggling. There are things that we can do. There are initiatives that we can put in place that can not only save people money and make them better off but contribute to our climate change goals.

However, that should never be done at the expense of people, and people should never be made poorer and colder because of the decisions that we make on the issue.

The Member raised that during the debate. As I said in my answer to Claire Sugden, I have raised it with the Minister for the Economy. Ultimately, however, while we can take action on that issue, what we need to see overall is more housing supply in Northern Ireland full stop. Of course, we will need the data to back up the decisions that we make and where we put our resources. Again, if there are specific areas regarding social housing that, she thinks, we need to be aware of, I will be more than happy to discuss them with her.

I am slightly disappointed with the lack of enthusiasm from the Member compared with that of her Alliance Party colleague, but I am glad that she has welcomed the strategy nonetheless. She will be aware of the significant sums of money that have been invested so far on the issue that she refers to. Again, we want to see housing supply increased across all tenures. We want to ensure that we have more affordable options full stop, and we will continue to make sure that we fund the commitments and the promises that have been made.

The first thing to say is that I have brought the strategy forward, and we have it here in front of us. We have a clear plan — a clear way forward on how we aim to tackle the issue. I do not pretend for a second that we have got everything in the document: we do not, That will come from the action plans that will be put in place. I look forward to the first one being in there in early 2025. Considerable work has gone on already to ensure that we have increased housing supply in Northern Ireland. I have outlined and am happy to outline again the things that I am doing: loan-to-acquire move-on accommodation, intermediate rent, additional funding, making sure that we have homes going where they need to go, as well as reviewing allocations. Those are all things that we are doing to help people get by and to have the homes that they need. There are specific programmes and specific things already in place. More will be coming, but, overall, this is about putting us on a trajectory to make sure that we take a whole-system approach to tackling the issue and to make sure that everybody is joined up. Some of this will be on other Departments. I certainly have my views on what I would like to see in respect of the planning system, statutory consultees, waste water and all of those issues. However, today we have a plan, we have people joined up and we have people committed to this, and, when it comes to the time for budgets to be allocated and for those other issues to be addressed, I will have no problem in going back to the Executive and reminding people of what we have signed up to and of how pressing an issue it is. I will be more than happy to do that. I am determined to get on with it.

The housing waiting list is growing because we do not have enough homes. That is why we have a strategy and a plan in place to do something about it. There have not been enough social homes built. There are restrictions and constraints elsewhere in the private sector as well. The plan aims to do something about that.

4,855 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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