As the new chair of the Forum for Better Homes NI, I am pleased to see the recent publication of the Housing Supply Strategy. This is an ambitious 15-year cross-government strategy supported by Executive ministers.
We welcome the proposed increase in capital funding announced in the draft Budget. The targets in the strategy should be backed up by guaranteed multi-year funding. Over the years it has been a common occurrence that the housing budgets have been topped up through unspent money identified in monitoring rounds.
While housing can always be an effective use of investing public money, it would be more efficient and effective for the social housing development programme to operate multi-year budgets. This would provide more certainty for both housing associations and the construction companies which undertake the work for them.
A standalone housing outcome in the new Programme for Government will be important. Our members are committed to playing their part in providing new social, affordable and private homes.
The number of people in urgent need of housing continues to grow. Investment in housing not only provides good quality homes but it also saves expenditure in the public purse on health, education and the criminal justice system, as those who live in these homes are more likely to enjoy better lives.
The construction of new homes has a significant impact on the economy due to the positive repercussions for the supply chain. It also helps to keep our skilled workers in the construction sector employed here in Northern Ireland. Because if the work is not here, people will go elsewhere to Britain, Ireland or further afield. If we lose these people to other markets, it will prove difficult to get them back in the longer term, which will only exacerbate the problem with lack of housing availability.
We set out the pressing need for decarbonising homes in our publication, New Foundations: The Route to Low Carbon Homes. The homes that we live in and the energy we use within them are a significant source of carbon emissions. By retrofitting existing homes, we make them healthier places to live, contribute to addressing climate change and help to address fuel poverty. A significant percentage of people are in fuel poverty and by making homes more energy efficient through retrofitting, we can address this issue.
Northern Ireland also still has a significant reliance on domestic heating oil, which is imported. We live in a time of great geopolitical uncertainty and instability. By making our homes more energy efficient and by using more renewable sources of energy, we can increase our energy security. This is not an abstract concept but has real life implications for our citizens here.
In addition to the environmental benefits, there is also the economic potential from green jobs in the construction industry. The work to retrofit local homes is urgent but it will not be completed overnight. It will take many years and provide employment throughout that time.
As a forum we have already been speaking to the Assembly’s Economy Committee about the need for people to get trained in these skills. There is an appetite for people to get trained with the skills necessary to undertake retrofitting of homes.
We believe that starting this work with homes in the social housing sector would be a logical approach. To do this there needs to be dedicated funding provided by the Executive to make it happen.
Niall Sheridan is chair of the Forum for Better Homes NI