Debate contribution: Housebuilding on Public Land

Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on 31 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Colm Gildernew

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

31 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Housebuilding on Public Land

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4871588

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Members who tabled the motion. Sinn Féin believes that housing is a human right. Everyone in our society, no matter their age or the background from which they come, should have access to a decent and affordable home of their own. A home is not just a roof over someone's head; it is fundamental to the well-being of every person in our society, yet so many people do not have access to a decent, affordable home of their own that meets their needs. The simple fact is that we are not building enough homes; in fact, the number of housing completions hit a 60-year low in 2023. As we all know, a lack of housing pushes up house prices and rents to a level that is unaffordable for many people. The latest house price index statistics show that the average house price in the North has reached a 17-year high and that average rent prices have increased by 56·4% over the past decade. The lack of housing also impacts on our ability to provide social housing to those in need. There are over 48,000 households on the social housing waiting list — the most there has ever been — with over 36,000 of them living in housing stress. Those figures, a chairde

, are stark. They underpin the urgent need to increase the supply of housing. The housing supply strategy sets an ambitious target of 100,000 new homes over the next 15 years. That is the scale of what is needed if we are to end the housing crisis. However, unless we substantially increase the number of homes that are built over the coming years, we will certainly fail to meet that target. We must overcome significant challenges if we are to deliver on that commitment. The first of those is funding. We have not seen adequate investment in social housing for many years. Many of the challenges that we face today stem directly from decades of underfunding by the British Government, and that is especially true when it comes to housing. I welcome the capital departmental expenditure limit (DEL) allocation of £100 million for social housing in the 2025-26 Budget. That significant investment provides a crucial foundation for increased new social housing provision and will go some way towards addressing the urgent need for affordable homes. However, we need to see even greater investment in social housing. We urgently need to see the revitalisation of the Housing Executive. That process, which was initiated by my party colleague Carál Ní Chuilín, would see the Housing Executive having the ability to borrow finance, which would unlock the potential for greater investment. As Finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald continually pressed the British Government on the matter, and I am confident that the new Finance Minister will do the same. The motion highlights another challenge that must be overcome: the utilisation of public land for social housing. I am sure that many of us can think of plots of land in our constituencies that are owned by the state and could be used for social housing but remain underutilised. The creation of a public land agency to ensure that public land can be utilised appropriately is something that Sinn Féin has called for in the past. In our document, 'A Home of Your Own', we called for the creation of an active land management agency in the Twenty-six Counties that would ensure an adequate supply of public land for the purposes of building homes while maximising the public good that can be gained from state assets. Carál Ní Chuilín, during her spell as Communities Minister, carried out an exercise to identify surplus public land in the North that could be used for social housing. I am also aware of great work by Belfast City Council, which has led the way in ensuring that public land in its district is used for social housing.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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