Debate contribution: Social and Affordable Housing: East Belfast

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 3 June 2025.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

3 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Social and Affordable Housing: East Belfast

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4986181

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for securing the Adjournment debate. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion, and I thank her for her clear passion for East Belfast and its people. I have no doubt that, if she were ever to leave the House, there would certainly be a career for her as an estate agent because she talked so eloquently about East Belfast and the locality. However, we know that that may well be a difficult job because of the difficulties we face with housing in East Belfast and across Northern Ireland. It is not the first time that we have debated the issues around social and affordable housing in the Chamber. Some of the issues raised today are specific to East Belfast, but most of what has been discussed is replicated across Northern Ireland. I understand the issue. It is one that we all face as constituency representatives, and we have all seen how acute it has become in recent years. Since I came into post, I have worked tirelessly to make sure that housing has the priority it deserves. I have been clear with Executive colleagues that we need to focus on delivery, and that means taking action to meet the increasing demand for social and affordable housing. We need to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurrent. We need to make better use of publicly owned land and find ways to address our waste water infrastructure constraints. We have made significant strides over the last year, and I am more than happy to highlight some of the actions that we have been able to take and the positive changes that we have made. Unfortunately, Mr O'Toole is not in his place any more. He asked for an update on when the housing supply strategy would be published: I am pleased to tell him that the strategy was published in December 2024. I am sorry that he is not here for me to remind him, because I know that Mr O'Toole loves to pull us up, where possible, and it would have been nice to remind him of that. Nevertheless, we have a housing supply strategy in place, and work is well under way on the first action plan. We have also secured housing as a priority in the Programme for Government. We have an Executive commitment to provide the homes that we need and a joined-up commitment across the Executive to make the necessary changes to meet the need. We have also secured commitments around homelessness prevention as well as taking decisive action to reform the private rented sector. The cost-of-living pressures are a reality for many, and I will bring forward a fuel poverty strategy at the end of the year. In the last financial year, I provided close to £180 million for the social housing development programme, which ensured that we were able to start 1,504 homes. In the East Belfast constituency, 66 social homes went on-site in the last year, with a total of 288 under construction at the end of March 2025. There were also 62 social homes completed in that time, and a further 197 are to start as part of the programme over the next three years. I recognise and understand that it is not enough. I would like to be able to do so much more for the people of East Belfast and beyond. I made my budget announcement to the Assembly yesterday. I prioritised the allocation of funding to new-build social homes. Over 80% of available funding is being directed to the social housing development programme. It will allow delivery of 900 to 1,000 new-build homes, but I recognise that it is significantly short of our target. However, bids will be submitted in-year to the Department of Finance to address the shortfall. I will continue to press for adequate funding to meet the Programme for Government commitment. I am more than happy for Mr O'Toole and others to continue to raise the issue in the Chamber. I encourage you all to do so because I want Executive colleagues to be aware of the strength of feeling and the need to meet the target. I welcome the fact that housing has been highlighted and is on the radar.

I will give way to Mr Allen.

One of the issues has been mentioned, and that is land. Land costs contribute about 20% to the cost of new homes. We have a lot of public land in Northern Ireland. We have a lot of unused public land across Departments, district councils and other public bodies. I want to see that land being used. The Executive are not cash-rich, but they are asset- and land-rich. I hope that Executive colleagues will recognise the particular need that exists in my Department and that we can find a way to come to an arrangement that ensures that that public land is used when we face what the House has declared to be a crisis in housing.

I will.

Absolutely. The whole point of bringing forward that proposal is to find ways to ensure that that public land is used. It is about not just the availability but the cost of public land and what can be done around that. If Executive colleagues are not able to help with cash, can they help in other ways, such as the provision of land? I will need to bring that to the Executive. There are other options that we can look at. The planning system was mentioned. We need to make sure that it is as simple and straightforward as possible. There are actions that Ministers can take. There are proactive things that we can do to move it along. The historic environment division, which sits in my Department, is a statutory consultee. When I came into office, we were hitting our targets about 27% of the time. Every week that goes by adds delay and cost to the building of new homes and anything else that we may want to proceed with. I specifically put additional resource into the historic environment division, and, as a result, we have gone from meeting 27% of our targets to 72% of our targets. That shows what can happen when we realise and identify what the problems are and put practical solutions in place. Those are the things that I am talking about when I say that we need to do things differently and look innovatively. I will always ask and bid for more money, but I want to make sure that we make the money that we have go as far as possible. I will continue to press for such positive changes. Another example is intermediate rent. I appointed Maple and May to act as intermediate rent operator. That will deliver over 300 new-build high-quality homes over the coming years. Co-ownership was also mentioned today, and we continue to progress that. Mr Brooks raised the issue of availability in the private rented sector and rising rents in East Belfast. We certainly need to address that. In fact, some of the money that we are putting towards homelessness prevention can help in the private rented sector. My time is running on, and I want to address a few other issues that were raised. Ms Bunting raised the issue of antisocial behaviour and its impact on entire communities as people are moved around from one area to the next. Housing associations and the Housing Executive often feel powerless in that regard. That will change. I want them to make use of the powers that they have, but I recognise that they are constrained by some of those powers, which is why I am bringing forward new measures to make sure that we can tackle antisocial behaviour. The Member raised that with me last year, and I have taken action. We went out to consultation. I look forward to bringing in those changes as soon as possible and having the legislative vehicle to do that. I will briefly address a few more concerns. Mr McReynolds talked about infrastructure. I spoke today to the Infrastructure Minister about waste water issues. It is absolutely right that we deal with that. Mr Brooks mentioned Mears. The approach of Mears has absolutely driven up prices, because it essentially names the price for property, which certainly has an impact on the affordability of rent. I think that I have addressed Deirdre Hargey's point about public land. I am glad that Mr O'Toole mentioned financial transactions capital, because we in this Department have done more than all the other Departments combined to make sure that we utilise FTC to address some of the housing problems that we face. My time is running short. I want everyone in the House to be aware that I know the issues concerning housing in East Belfast and beyond and that I am doing everything that I can to help people across all tenures. Giving people a safe, warm and affordable home is one of the most important things that we can do, and I will not be found wanting in that regard.

1,520 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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