The Communities Minister at the Stormont Executive, Gordon Lyons, is using a lack of reliable data to excuse his failure to tackle the housing crisis.
In the Communities Minister's words, there’s ‘no financial advantage or requirement’ for ratepayers to notify Land and Property Services about vacant properties. In effect, this means there could be thousands more empty homes across the North that aren’t listed in official figures.
Gerry Carroll, People Before Profit MLA said, ‘This makes Executive inaction even more unconscionable. People waiting on the social housing waiting list, sofa surfing with friends and family, those living in temporary accommodation and people sleeping rough on our streets have no truck with such excuses and delay.”
‘Thousands of us live on streets with empty homes. We work in town and city centres with derelict buildings. It’s fundamentally unfair that properties lie empty while levels of homelessness and housing stress skyrocket.”
‘Bringing empty homes back into use is more cost-effective and far more environmentally friendly than constructing new builds. Empty properties also have the significant advantage of already being connected to existing wastewater infrastructure.’
As the housing crisis deepens, the Finance and Communities Ministers must act urgently to ensure records about empty homes are accurate and up-to-date.”