Northern Ireland council approves 400-home scheme with 20% affordable housing
A 400-home development with 20% affordable housing will be built in Carrickfergus, despite more than 100 objections from residents.
Northern Ireland council approves 400-home scheme with 20% affordable housing #UKhousingThe scheme includes 40 social homes, which will be managed by a registered housing association, and 41 intermediate homes.
It will be built on previously undeveloped land north of Prince Andrew Way which was first zoned for housing more than two decades ago.
Objections to the development included concerns over higher traffic levels, the loss of habitat on the site and the reduction in open space used by locals for dog walking.
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But all 11 members of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s planning committee backed officers’ recommendation to approve it at a meeting this month.
More than 3,300 households were on the Mid and East Antrim waiting list as of June last year, according to a Freedom of Information response from the Housing Executive.
Last September, nearly 50,000 households were waiting for social housing across Northern Ireland, with more than three-quarters deemed to be in “housing stress”.
The pipeline for new social housing in the country stood at 8,000 homes last August.
But in December, the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations warned that the number of viable projects could be slashed due to a planned grant cut announced in October.
Last month, the national director of the Chartered Institute of Housing Northern Ireland raised his concern that the country is not in a housing shortage but a “full-blown emergency”, citing statistics showing that the number of legally homeless households waiting for homes is at its highest level in recent history.
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