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Northern Ireland government boosts social housing grant by 20%

Northern Ireland’s government has announced a 20% increase to its social housing grant budget for the current financial year while hailing delivery figures for 2020/21.

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Northern Ireland’s government has announced a 20% increase to its social housing grant budget for the current financial year #UKhousing

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) will be handed £162m to allocate through the Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) in 2021/22 – an increase of around £26m from last year.

Communities minister Deirdre Hargey combined the announcement with the news that social housebuilding targets were well beaten in 2020/21.

Despite delays to construction in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, 2,403 new social homes were started in Northern Ireland in 2020/21, 30% more than the 1,850 target set by the government.

That compares to just 761 starts last year, when final-quarter activity was blighted by the lockdown scuppering hopes of meeting targets, and also surpasses the 1,786 starts achieved in 2018/19.

There were 1,318 completions through the SHDP in 2020/21, beating the Department for Communities’ 1,200 target.

However, that figure is down 19% from the 1,626 completions achieved in 2019/20.


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“Whilst the statistics are important, each one of those houses represents a home for those who are on our social housing waiting list, many of who will have been waiting for some time,” Ms Hargey said.

“I want to thank our delivery partners in the Housing Executive and the housing associations for their hard work in what has been a challenging year.

“We must now turn our attention to ensure we continue to deliver an enhanced new build programme.”

Ms Hargey has previously signalled her intention to boost social housing development, and political parties in Northern Ireland committed to increasing grant as part of the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ deal agreed in January 2020 as the basis of its power-sharing legislature.

She has also vowed to reintroduce ringfencing to channel social housing grant into certain areas, promising to “build homes where they are needed”.

Grainia Long, chief executive of the NIHE, said: “It is really a testament to the hard work of all those involved, in particular, our local housing associations, that they have delivered homes at scale during a global pandemic and I commend and thank them for this work.

“However, despite sustained and continued investment in social and affordable housing, supply is not keeping pace with demand – and this impacts profoundly on the life chances of many households.

“The need for new homes and the growing demand for extra support to deal with homelessness means investment in housing and in housing services must continue, particularly as we emerge from the effects of COVID-19.”

Ben Collins, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations, said: “The new homes these associations build have a significant economic multiplier impact of around £1bn a year for the regional economy, when we take into account the impact on the wider supply chain.

“The NI Executive has indicated that they consider new build housing to be key to our region’s economic recovery post-pandemic.

“Housing associations will continue to lead the way on this, working with government, housing executive and the wider construction industry to successfully deliver this.”

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