Debate contribution: Housing Costs

Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on 19 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Colm Gildernew

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

19 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Housing Costs

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5322690

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I thank Members for tabling the motion on such a hugely important issue. The lack of housing supply has caused house prices and private rents to skyrocket in recent years. Rents have risen by over 50% in the past decade, far beyond the rate of inflation and, crucially, far beyond the growth in household incomes. In practice, that means that rents have become unaffordable for many renters, with many struggling households falling below the poverty line as a result. The situation is unsustainable. We need to see more support delivered to renters in both the immediate term and the longer term. The root cause of the problem is the lack of housing supply, so we urgently need to see more homes being built. The housing supply strategy sets an ambitious target of at least 100,000 new homes over the next 15 years, with one third of those being social homes. It is absolutely vital that we start meeting that target now, or we will end up with a target that cannot be achieved in later years. We have debated many times in the Chamber the steps that need to be taken to meet the targets for social homes. I appreciate that the underfunding of the Executive by the British Government has made that a difficult task. However, I welcome the decision by the Finance Minister to prioritise social housing in recent monitoring rounds and in his draft multi-year Budget, in which he has allocated £423 million to social housing over the next four years. However, we also need to see progress on the revitalisation of the Housing Executive, which would give the Housing Executive the power to borrow against its assets and allow it to build more homes. I would appreciate the Minister giving an update on that revitalisation at some point and further detail on when he expects to publish the first action plan of the housing supply strategy. We need to do more to protect renters from unfair rent increases. The Private Tenancies Act introduced by Deirdre Hargey during her time as Minister ushered in significant protections such as the limiting of rent increases to once a year. Now is the time to build on that by exploring other forms of rent control and learning from other jurisdictions that have successfully introduced such measures. It is deeply regrettable that the British Government have decided to freeze the local housing allowance rates for the upcoming year. That decision will undoubtedly make it harder for renters on low incomes to sustain their tenancies, which will push more people into the social sector and further increase homelessness levels. The Minister will be acutely aware of the already unacceptably high numbers of people who are homeless and the extreme pressures on organisations that provide support under the Supporting People programme.

Homelessness prevention should be prioritised, and I look forward to working with the Minister on the issue, as I hope to introduce my homelessness prevention Bill in the Assembly in the near future.

The motion calls on the Minister to introduce a moratorium on the house sales scheme, known as the right-to-buy scheme. Sinn Féin believes that that is a necessary step to stabilise our existing social housing stock. It is counter-intuitive to say that we must do all we can to build more social and affordable homes in order to reduce the waiting list while continuing to sell off hundreds of social homes per year under the house sales scheme. A moratorium or, better still, the outright ending of the right-to-buy scheme is now imperative if we want to get to grips with the housing crisis. The sooner that the Minister recognises that fact, the better, because the longer that he delays that decision, the worse off we will all be in the long run. I take this opportunity to raise directly with the Minister the huge concern about his decision to reduce the housing association grant. A recent report by the Federation of Housing Associations states that the vast majority of housing schemes in places such as Belfast and Lisburn may become unviable and that that will impact heavily on the number of homes being built. It would be helpful if the Minister could share with Members the data that his Department holds that supports his assertion that the change will lead to more homes being built.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification