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  • Lyons welcomes Burnham’s commitment on housing

    Topics:
    • Housing supply policy & delivery

    Date published: 20 July 2026

    Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s promise to invest in housing.

    Minister Lyons said:

    “The Prime Minister is right to say he wants to invest in housing and I share his ambition to build more social homes.

    “I set out in the Housing Supply Strategy a target of more than 30,000 new social homes by 2039, as part of our drive to build at least 100,000 new homes here.

    “To achieve this, we all have to do things differently. I will be pressing the Prime Minister for urgent consideration of my proposal to Treasury to give the Northern Ireland Housing Executive the equivalent borrowing powers as public sector landlords in England. This will allow it to increase public housing supply, invest in its 83,000 homes and give a significant boost to our local economy.

    “The Prime Minister has it in his power to make this change and it will be a major test of his commitment to delivering more housing across the UK.

    “I am also pleased to see the focus on tackling homelessness and look forward to seeing the increased investment in prevention, including housing led solutions.”

    Notes to editors:

    1. For media enquiries please contact the DfC Press Office via press.office@communities-ni.gov.uk.
    2. Follow the Department on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
    3. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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