Northern Ireland Housing Executive invests in 473 social homes in Antrim

Ms Long said: “In Mid and East Antrim, we invested £5.55m on planned maintenance including stock improvements last year, with a further £5.03m spent on response maintenance.

“We worked hard to support the most vulnerable in our communities with £4.02m invested through the Supporting People programme to fund 69 services provided by partner organisations across the district. 

“This investment provided housing support to 1,385 people last year.

“Across the district, 853 people who presented as homeless were accepted for support last year. 

“Our focus on prevention and early intervention will continue with the aim of providing a sustainable model of provision to prevent homelessness.”

She said that despite the investment in new social homes, the gap between housing demand and supply “continues to widen and we recognise the importance of continued partnership with councils and the housing sector to find solutions”. 

She said: “Looking ahead to next year there is no doubt that we will continue to face challenges however we remain fully committed to the objectives set out in our Housing Investment Plan 2023-26.

“We will continue to work with our partners to increase social housing supply, help to address the impact of climate change, invest in our local economy, deliver innovative housing solutions and involve our customers to ensure they are at the heart of service improvements in our business delivery model.”