Work started on just 65 social housing dwellings in the nine months to the end of last year, it can be revealed amid a scramble to meet a target of 1,750 before the end of the financial year in just over two weeks.
While a last quarter surge in work-starts happens every year, the number to the end of December is far below the hundreds normally given the go ahead by housing chiefs. Approval for just 24 was granted in the last three months of the year.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which ultimately signs off on social housing starts, said it still expected to meet the 1,750 target for 2025/26 by the end of the month, meaning a record 1,685 approvals for the quarter.
Most housing starts are new builds but also include a small number of ‘existing property purchases’ and rehabs.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said this week there was a “clear risk” of failing to meet the overall target of starting on 5.850 homes by the end of the mandate in May 2027.
Mr Lyons told the Assembly that, at best, work will have started on 3,250 dwellings by the end of this year, leaving 2,600 to begin construction in the next financial year. The best case includes the 1,750 this year.
The minister said the support provided “by some Executive colleagues has been found wanting, particularly in relation to funding allocated to my department for social house-building”.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Colm Gildernew described as “concerning” the low number of starts in the first nine months of the financial year compared to previous years when they averaged around 350.
“While Communities Minister Gordon Lyons continues to prioritise pet projects, he is failing to deliver on his key responsibilities, including housing and homelessness,” said Mr Gildernew.
“The figures at this point in time are concerning given the low number of starts to date compared to figures at the same point in previous years. The impact of recent changes to the Housing Association Grant allocations also remain unclear.”
Information on the actual number of starts since the beginning of the year is not available.
But housing associations in the later part of last year scrambled to gain approval to start work on 1,269 homes across 65 schemes.
This happened ahead of the December 1 introduction of a reduced grant rate provided by Stormont to deliver social housing. Approval was granted for just 24 in the last three months of the year, including 20 new builds.
The grant provided to housing associations was reduced on average from 54% of the total cost to 46%, a move the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA) argued raises “real concerns about the future viability of many projects currently in development or close to commencement”.
An NIHE spokesperson said the “delivery of the social housing new build programme is dependent on several key factors”.
These include budget availability, funding approval, planning approval, construction timeframes, legal and contractual issues and coordination with many other statutory bodies.
“Due to the annual budget cycle, the delivery of the programme is traditionally weighted towards the end of the financial year – so we see delivery of the majority of the new starts programme in the final quarter,“ the spokesperson said.
Housing industry insiders have previously criticised the imbalance and called to changes so delivery can be spread more evenly across the year.
“Whilst the number of new homes starting in the last quarter was less than in previous years, through collaboration with housing associations and other delivery partners, we expect to meet the overall target of 1,750 new social housing starts by March 31.”
The Department for Communities was contacted for comment.
