Housing delivery in the North

With less than one year until the next Northern Assembly election, the North’s Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons MLA gives an overview of his housing priorities.

Speaking at Housing Ireland’s Northern Ireland Housing Conference, Minister Lyons says that he is “committed to making a difference and delivering housing improvements for all our people”.

“I am going to ensure that even after my tenure as minister comes to an end. We will have a well-defined plan to tackle housing’s most complex issues.”

Lyons, who has been the North’s Communities Minister since February 2024, states that his new plan “is going to include innovative solutions, such as loan funding to deliver the first 300 new build intermediate rent homes, and the acquisition of up to 100 houses to deliver the new foundations programme, helping to prevent young people leaving care and becoming homeless”.
On social housing, the Minister states that around 5,000 new social homes are currently on site across Northern Ireland, and that “thanks to the money that I have secured in the December Monitoring Round at Stormont, we expect to start around 17,150 social homes this year”.

Lyons also asserts that he is “pressing” the Executive, of which he is a part, to “confirm budget allocation for next year as soon as possible, as well as delivering a proposal to make better use of public land, so we can deliver our PfG target”.

The North’s Warm Healthy Homes Strategy 2026-2036 aims to ensure everyone in the region lives in a warm, healthy home by tackling fuel poverty, improving energy efficiency, and supporting vulnerable households.

“I am making real progress with the implementation of the housing supply strategy, bringing the first cross-Executive action plan to the Executive this spring.”

Gordon Lyons MLA, Minister for Communities

Speaking on this, Lyons says: “I brought forward the Warm Healthy Homes strategy, and will launch the Warm Healthy Homes Fund in 2027. The fund will offer a range of energy efficiency measures to support low-income households who are least able to pay for improvements.”

Lyons also says that he will “consult on strengthening” the private rented sector landlord registration scheme and notice to quit regulations.

“I have consulted on a revised decent home standard for social housing, the first update to the standard in over 20 years, which has a strong focus on tenant wellbeing and comfort,” he says.

“Our tenant participation strategy expired in 2020, so I will consult this year on a refreshed strategy that learns from the wealth of good practice that is in place, and which will help tenants to participate in the decisions that actually affect them.”

At the same time, Minister Lyons outlines how he is bringing forward legislation to “strengthen landlords’ powers to deal with antisocial behaviour” and that he will “soon be launching a consultation on new powers to tackle social housing tenancy fraud”.

On supply, he says: “Given current levels of need, every house matters. I am making real progress with the implementation of the housing supply strategy, bringing the first cross-Executive action plan to the Executive this spring.”

Concluding, Minister Lyons says that “much has been accomplished” over the last year, and affirms that he will continue to work with people right across the North’s housing sector to “ensure that together we make a real difference to the lives of people in Northern Ireland”.

Gordon Lyons MLA is the North’s Minister for Communities. Lyons has been an East Antrim MLA for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) since 2015.