The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) invested nearly £100m in homes in a local authority area in the east of the country last year.
The housing authority’s investment in Lisburn and Castlereagh in 2022-23 included just under £60m in new build homes in the district, with 330 housing association units on site at March 2023, and 97 housing completions for the year.
Grainia Long, chief executive of NIHE, presented the details from the local authority’s annual housing investment plan at a meeting with councillors from Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.
She said: “In Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, the Housing Executive spend last year was just under £100m.
“We invested £2.6m on planned maintenance including stock improvements, with a further £3.46m spent on response maintenance.
“We worked hard to support the most vulnerable in our communities with £5.08m invested through the Supporting People programme to fund 72 services provided by partner organisations across the district.
“This investment provided housing support to 1,456 people last year.”
Ms Long said that despite the investment in new homes, the gap between housing demand and supply “continues to widen” and “we recognise the importance of continued partnership with councils and the housing sector to find solutions”.
She added: “Looking ahead to next year, there is no doubt that we will continue to face challenges.
“However we remain fully committed to the objectives set out in our Housing Investment Plan 2023-26.
“We will continue to work with our partners to increase social housing supply, help to address the impact of climate change, invest in our local economy, deliver innovative housing solutions and involve our customers to ensure they are at the heart of service improvements in our business delivery model.”
A body representing Northern Ireland’s homelessness sector voiced concerns in August over the latest government figures that showed a rise in homelessness.
Homeless Connect warned that the political stalemate is having “very real consequences”.
The Northern Ireland Assembly, which sits at Stormont, effectively collapsed in February last year after the Democratic Unionist Party walked out of the power-sharing executive in protest against a Brexit deal which introduced new checks and restrictions on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Source : Insidehousing
