DfC will push for more in-year funding allocations to boost social home starts in Northern Ireland

Mr Greer said the initial figure allocated to support new social homes to start this year was £63m.

“You will recognise that that is significantly short of our target of 2,000 homes.

“We will of course be submitting bids in-year to the executive to try and close that gap in terms of hitting that target of 2,000 homes. To cover the 2,000 homes and meet our inescapable requirement, we would need £230m in total.

“So it’s very clear, when you contrast that number with the allocation that we received, there is significant pressure there,” he told the committee.

Mr Greer added that department allocations will fund £2.5m for affordable warmth projects for lower-income households to make their homes more energy efficient.

Colm Gildernew, the chair of the committee, asked about homelessness funding after receiving a report from the Simon Community charity that calls for a ringfenced pot for prevention.

“The Simon Community contends that anything else other than ringfencing is crisis management and not actually dealing with the problem.

“Has that been factored into the funding for homelessness and Supporting People programme?” he asked.

Kathy Sands, finance director of the DfC, said prevention funding will be ringfenced “in terms of our department”.

“The [communities minister Gordon Lyons] has said that his desire is to have ringfenced funding, and that is one of the proposals in terms of the budget for 2025-26.”

Earlier this year, housing bodies called on the Northern Irish government to allocate more funding to support new social homes.