Debate contribution: Holiday Homes and Short-term Lets

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 4 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

4 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Holiday Homes and Short-term Lets

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5217166

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. What a vicious and nasty arena this room can be, but is it not a pleasure that we have just got through a debate in which we all agreed on something and that we are trying to put our thoughts in the right place to help those who elected us to be here? The debate has managed to restore a bit of faith in what we can do when we discuss things that we agree on and scope out whether we can pitch something to Ministers to see whether there is a way in which we can influence them to change the policies that will guide our constituents and, hopefully, help people as they face some of the problems that have been so eloquently expressed by Members this evening. To take a positive from the debate, it has been a great tour around Northern Ireland in which we heard people talk about their areas, putting forward the beauty of the north coast or of Fermanagh, for example, and we will not forget the cities: Belfast, Derry and the other places that were referenced. Of course, I will not get through my contribution without mentioning South Down and joining my colleagues in highlighting the beauty that is there. We would be naive not to realise that with that beauty, and with our wish to have places where people want to be, comes the problem of people taking up and occupying properties by purchasing them but, in whatever way it may be, not using them. That erodes the sense of community. It is the role of the person who is winding up the debate to reflect on the remarks that were made in it. It is interesting that, probably to a T, everybody mentioned the same things. We mentioned the fact that the important thing for an area is a sense of community. Community is not the bricks and mortar but the people who live in it: people who come together and become part of local sporting clubs, go to local schools and shop in local shops. For them to do that, however, they need to be in that community regularly. There is no easier way of being a positive advocate for an area than to actually live there and use the local facilities. It is clear that people will miss those things once they are gone. By that stage, it is too late, but, often, that is when you realise that things have been taken away.

Of course I will, Kellie.

I am not going to discuss pilfering in great detail, but, given that the Member's constituency has stolen part of our constituency, I am bound to say that great swathes of Strangford are absolutely beautiful. I know many of those areas, because I was born and raised and went to school in a part that is now moving over into her constituency. The Member's point is well made. It is about how acutely that difference is noticed. It can take longer in a city to notice that those sorts of services are being eroded. That does not mean that you do not notice it. However, especially in rural communities, as anyone who you speak to about them will tell you, it is the people who make the area. It is about knowing who is going to be in the local shops and going about their daily business in those areas. I acknowledge the point — I do not think it was an intentional absence — in Diana's remarks on behalf of the Ulster Unionists. We get that point; we get that it is a balance. You cannot exist without tourism. We all need it. It supports a massive industry, and, in some areas, probably the biggest industry. It was really good to see so many Members contributing by saying that it is about getting the balance right and making sure that we do not tip over into having too many people removed from an area, because it all becomes too tourist-focused. Likewise, you have to have those tourists. In places in my constituency such as Newcastle, Warrenpoint and others, we know about the importance of tourism, because of the money that it brings in and the jobs that it supports and how that supports the community that we are talking about trying to support. Diana referred to balance, but everybody, I think, took the opportunity to refer to the balance that is needed. In acknowledging that there is a problem, which is probably most felt in the north coast area, a number of Members referenced the importance of not reinventing the wheel. Scotland, Wales, France and other places that were referenced face these problems. They are having to get to grips with that. Some of them are years ahead of us in the problem of over-saturation, but they are also years ahead of us in trying to find the solutions to deal with it. I encourage any departmental officials who might be listening to the debate to scope out other places that have managed the problem and come up with a solution. Many Members referenced the important point that taking these second properties, Airbnbs and other types of lets out of the housing stock means that there is pressure on the rest of the stock. Business is business. That drives the price of properties up. That means that, for people in our local community who are trying to get on to the housing ladder for the first time in an area close to their families and to that support and community that we all referenced, it becomes increasingly difficult, because house prices are going up to £300,000, £400,000 or £500,000. That prices first-time buyers out of the market. We want to keep that healthy balance that we spoke about, but how can you have that balance if you are needing half a million pounds to buy a house? You just cannot do it. Even MLAs could not afford that, although many people out there think that we can afford anything. I appreciate everyone's support for the motion. It is great to see that we have that commonality. Our phrasing did not include reference to a Minister. We wanted to call on the whole Executive, because it is a cross-cutting issue that a number of Departments need to look at. The downside of that is that we do not have any Ministers here, but I do not think that that means that there is any lack of interest among the Ministers around the Executive table. They know that the problem is there, and they have the good, solid Back-Benchers from all the parties pushing forward what we want to see. Hopefully, together, we can get a solution that will help the local communities that we all represent.

1,143 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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