SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan has said the Communities Minister’s Housing Supply Strategy is meaningless without being backed by funding.
Minister Gordon Lyons gave a statement to the Assembly on Monday.
The plan retains a target to build 100,000 homes in 15 years from the draft strategy.
Said the Foyle MLA: “This strategy is more of the same and utterly meaningless without funding to address the reasons for the housing emergency we are experiencing across the North.
“When the draft strategy was announced in 2021 we were told the Executive would deliver 100,000 homes over 15 years, with little detail on how they would deliver them.
“In the past five years the department claim they have started just over 8,000 new social homes, and they expect us to believe they will build ten times that over the next 15.
“Given everything we have seen from this Executive so far that seems insurmountable.
“Targets are meaningless without a clear plan to tackle the root causes preventing house building in the North.
“There are many levers at the Minister’s disposal from tackling empty homes, empowering the Housing Executive to embark on an ambitious house-building programme and he should be working with his Executive colleagues to address the challenges facing our wastewater infrastructure that is holding up over 19,000 homes.
“This strategy will bring no comfort to the over 47,000 current on the waiting list for social housing or the young families who are finding it impossible to get on the housing ladder.
“While there are welcome initiatives buried in this strategy, it will also do little to help those paying ever increasing rents or having to leave their communities as they see properties being bought up and used as second homes.
“We heard much about ambition in the Assembly today, but little detail on how this could be achieved.
“The public deserve better than the celebration of a target this Executive is unlikely to ever meet.”
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