Debate contribution: Housing Costs

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 19 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

19 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Housing Costs

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5322558

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

On behalf of the SDLP, I will propose a couple of measures to mitigate a housing crisis that has not just arrived overnight but is the inevitable result of political choices made in the Chamber. They allowed rises in rents to go unchecked and the stripping away of social housing stock to continue. Repeated warnings from not just the SDLP but the sector and even others in the Chamber were ignored. The consequences of those decisions are felt now by tens of thousands of families across all of our constituencies. Rents have surged, living costs have exploded, and wages have not kept pace. For too many households, rent now swallows an unsustainable share of income, forcing people to choose between housing and basics such as food, heat and childcare. It is no longer a fringe issue; it is hitting working families, older people and those on fixed incomes. The scale of the problem is clear in the gap between local housing allowance (LHA) and the rents that are charged. By May 2024, almost 60,000 private renters in the North were paying that shortfall, yet LHA rates remain frozen. At the same time, discretionary housing payments designed to plug that gap have been stripped back. Eligibility has halved, awards have been capped, and £4·5 million — as it is put, the £4·5 million "easement" — is left unspent while households struggle. That does not seem like efficiency; it seems more like the quiet withdrawal of support. Social housing waiting lists now sit at close to 50,000 households. With supply failing to keep pace, people are pushed into the private rented sector, which drives up demand and rents, particularly at the lower end of the market. Unsurprisingly, the loss of private rented accommodation remains one of the leading causes of homelessness. Tenant protections here lag behind other jurisdictions, although, I suppose, we saw limited progress through the Private Tenancies Act 2022. A landlord can now increase the rent only annually, but there is still no limit on the extent of the increase. No-fault evictions remain here, and further promised reforms have stalled. In that context, inaction is not neutral; it entrenches insecurity. That is why we believe that third-generation rent controls must form part of the response. They are not crude rent freezes. I understand the Minister, the sector and others' concerns about that approach, but they are targeted, evidence-based measures that allow reasonable increases while preventing sudden destabilising hikes. They provide stability for tenants and clarity and certainty for landlords. Rent controls alone will not work while we continue to hollow out our social housing stock. Since the house sales scheme began in 1979, over 122,000 Housing Executive homes have been sold. That is more than the number currently owned by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive; it has about 83,000 homes remaining. Replacement has never come close. At current build rates, it would take nearly 80 years just to replace what has already been lost, and that does not take into account increasing demand or anything like that. That matters not just for supply in the here and now but for the future of the Housing Executive itself. Every home sold weakens the Housing Executive's balance sheet, reduces rental income and undermines its asset base. Inevitably, that directly limits its ability to borrow, invest and build at scale. Parties across the Chamber say that they support giving the Housing Executive the power to borrow, yet they continue to back policies that strip away the very assets that lenders look for. You cannot talk up borrowing powers while selling off collateral. I get that parties have different ideological views on the right-to-buy scheme. We all know people who have aspired to and achieved homeownership through that scheme. It has been extremely popular, and that may be why this is so difficult for some parties. However, selling social homes during a housing emergency is indefensible. The Assembly had a real chance to stop the scheme through legislation in 2020, but, when I tabled an amendment to the legislation to do that, the DUP, the Ulster Unionists, Alliance and, bizarrely, Sinn Féin all voted against it. Since that vote in 2020, over 1,500 more Housing Executive homes have been lost. That is virtually a year's worth of homes. Those decisions have consequences: higher rents, longer waiting lists and deeper housing insecurity. We cannot afford to keep doing that. I am not even asking to scrap the scheme now, just to press "Pause", Minister. When I asked the Minister, through a question for written answer, whether he had assessed the impact of the house sales scheme on housing stock and homelessness, I received a one-word reply: "Yes". I have had no detail, no transparency and no accountability, but, hopefully, he can elaborate on that consideration or assessment later in the debate. Meanwhile, Scotland and Wales have ended right-to-buy. In Scotland alone, over 15,500 homes that would have been sold are now retained in the social rented sector. That is what acting in the public interest looks like. The Minister characterises himself as someone who will do things differently to get better results. The jury is still out on the impact that the cuts that he has made to the housing association grant rate will have. The Minister points to an intermediate rents scheme: that is welcome, but it falls well short of the scale of action required. This is not a routine policy challenge; it is a housing emergency, and the response thus far, sadly, does not meet the reality. The Minister seeks acclaim for his role, whatever that might be, in allowing the Housing Executive now to buy back hundreds of those homes to help address the cost of temporary accommodation. We in the SDLP believe that housing is a public good. That means protecting renters from unaffordable increases and stopping the permanent loss of social housing, not just for today but to ensure that the Housing Executive has the strength to build for and in the future. The cost of delay is already visible: rising homelessness, worsening child poverty, declining mental health and communities being hollowed out as people are priced out of their areas. Stabilising rents and placing a moratorium on the house sales scheme will not solve everything, but, without them, nothing else will either. The evidence is clear; the consequences are real; the crisis is deepening. If the Minister is serious about doing things differently, now is the time to prove it. I commend the motion.

1,090 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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