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  • Housing

    Social housing providers, reform of social housing, help and advice for private rented and social housing tenants, housing legislation

    contents

    Social housing providers

    A key area of our business is addressing social housing need through the delivery of new social housing and creating opportunity for housing regeneration as reflected in our Programme for Government commitment. We work closely with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Registered Housing Associations to achieve this.

    • Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE)
    • Building Successful Communities
    • Registered housing associations

    Housing Association Guide

    The Housing Association Guide provides guidance around aspects of Development, Procurement, and Housing Management functions.

    • Housing Association Guide

    Reform of social housing

    The Department is responsible for a programme of reform aiming to improve housing structures such as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and allowing social housing landlords to play a more proactive role in the communities they serve.

    • Review of Social Housing Allocations
    • Social housing reform programme
    • Tenancy Fraud - Social housing sector

    Help and advice for private rented tenants, social housing tenants and owner occupiers

    The department aims to support social housing providers and their tenants, private housing owners and private rented tenants by publishing relevant policy documents on issues such as information, advice and assistance available.

    • Private rented sector
    • The Rent Officer
    • Housing Fitness Standard

    Housing supply policy & delivery

    A key area of our business is to increase new housing supply (in particular affordable housing supply) and support households to sustain homeownership, aligning to the Programme for Government 2024-2027 priority to provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing.

    • A new housing supply strategy
    • Definition of affordable housing
    • Intermediate Rent

    Housing legislation & residential building safety

    Legislation in relation to housing in Northern Ireland.

    • Cladding Safety Scheme
    • Residential Building Safety
    • Residential building safety - frequently asked questions (FAQs)

    Fuel poverty

    A household is said to be in fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income on energy costs.

    • Development of the Warm Healthy Homes Strategy
    • Warm Healthy Homes 2026-2036: A new Fuel Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland

    Housing statistics

    Quarterly and annual compendium publications of housing statistics, biannual homelessness statistics and the ongoing review of data included in these publications and their proposed changes.

    • Northern Ireland Housing Statistics
    • Northern Ireland Housing Bulletin
    • Northern Ireland Homelessness Bulletin

    Related to Housing

    Most recent publications

    • Proposal to increase rents by 4.8% for protected and statutory tenancies for 2026/2027 - screening

      Published 21 May 2026
    • Warm Healthy Homes Fund (Replacing Affordable Warmth Scheme ending in March 2028) - screening

      Published 19 May 2026
    See all publications in this topic

    Most recent consultations

    • Consultation on Amendments to the Landlord Registration Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

      Published 2 March 2026 Closes 08 June 2026
    • Consultation on notice to quit periods

      Published 5 January 2026 Consultation closed
    See all consultations in this topic

    Most recent news items

    • Lyons confirms Latharna House demolition

      Published 13 May 2026
    • Lyons hails 17% increase in social home building

      Published 5 May 2026
    See all news in this topic

    Access to information

    How to request information from the Department for Communities including Freedom of Information (FOI) and the use of our Publication Scheme. You may also request your own personal information, via a Right of Access Request.

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