'Urgent action' needed on lack of social housing

Urgent action is needed to tackle the lack of social housing in Northern Ireland, the Chairman of Stormont's Communities Committee has said.

The Executive pledged to spend £115m on new social housing in 2026.

However, figures released earlier this week show there is just £3m available in the draft budget to address the issue.

Colm Gildernew said there are concerns that the department have not progressed initiatives aimed at creating more social houses.

On Thursday John Greer from the DfC told the committee the minister was facing some "difficult decisions".

"They are spending £40m a year now on temporary accommodation in terms of homelessness," Gildernew told Sunday Politics.

"There was an announcement last year that 600 homes were going to be purchased to reduce that cost and not a single one of them homes has been bought.

"That is something that the department needs to press with urgency."

The permanent secretary has said the minister is bringing a paper to the executive about ways in which the public sector estate could be used, something Gildernew said he would support.

There are about 50,000 households in Northern Ireland on social housing waiting lists, according to the latest official figures.

Social housing in Northern Ireland is typically built by not-for-profit housing associations, supported by Department for Communities (DfC) funding.

In October the Communities Minister Gordon Lyons announced he would be reducing funding for housing associations to build new social housing.

Then in January he said his department has set a target to start building 1,750 houses this year.

That target is still short of the one set in Stormont's Programme for Government, which pledged to start work on at least 5,850 new build social homes by 2027.

"It's absolutely unquestionable that there's a very challenging situation facing the DfC along with all other departments right across the Executive," Gildernew said.

"What we were being told at committee on Thursday is a cause for concern and I think needs a particular focus in terms of what we do because housing and homelessness is a huge challenge for us here."