Northern Ireland Housing Executive agrees new contracts worth £252m

The news follows the Housing Executive reaching an agreement with 10 contractors last year to release them from planned maintenance contracts five years early amid soaring costs.

At the time, the NIHE said the decision to end the contracts, which were agreed before the huge surge in the rate of inflation, was mutual and aimed at preventing job losses in the industry.

Grainia Long, chief executive of the Housing Executive, said the new contracts will “see a substantial investment in the local economy” and provide “long-term assurances of job security and training opportunities for multiple local contractors”.

She said the operating environment over the past three years has been challenging in terms of “price volatility, labour and material availability”, particularly in the construction market. 

Ms Long explained: “These market volatility issues were initially caused as a result of the pandemic and have been compounded by the recent geopolitical situation and impact of the global economy. 

“Local contractors have faced unprecedented cost increases and labour shortages. 

“As a consequence, a number of our maintenance services and programmes were disrupted and last November we allowed a number of contractors to be released from their contractual obligations with the aim of stabilising workforces and protecting jobs.”

She said the new contracts will facilitate the delivery of “quality services and standards” for tenants which “demonstrate value for money and are sustainable for contractors”. 

”Our key focus is to ensure that going forward we have contracts in place to deliver on our ambitious plans to maintain and improve our homes,” Ms Long added. 

The NIHE, which owns around 82,000 homes, has invested £907m into its properties in the past five years.