AQO 2688/22-27 Oral question to the Minister for Communities
To ask the Minister for Communities to outline how his Department is addressing poverty in North Down.
Asked by Connie Egan MLA on 6 November 2025
- Answered
- Oral
- Answered in the Chamber
- Tabled
- 6 November 2025
- Answer due by
- 17 November 2025
- Answered
- 17 November 202511 days after tabling
- Department
- Department for Communities
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Answered in the Assembly Chamber on 17 November 2025. Extract from the Official Report (Hansard), including any supplementary questions:
Mr Lyons
The issues that people in North Down face with poverty are similar to those that people throughout Northern Ireland face. I am working to address those issues through the development of the anti-poverty strategy and interventions such as the extension of welfare mitigations; the adoption of the new housing supply strategy; the provision of inclusive pathways to work for everyone in Northern Ireland; work on fuel poverty; and the development of a new People and Place strategic framework. In the Ards and North Down Borough Council area, my Make the Call outreach team supported over 1,200 people to access just under £7 million in additional benefits last year. Between 1 February 2024 and 30 June this year, the Housing Executive funded private-sector grants, including affordable warmth, totalling over £3 million. That funding supported 91 home improvement grants and helped 155 homes through the affordable warmth scheme. In this financial year, the neighbourhood renewal programme has invested almost half a million pounds in 13 projects. I have also provided half a million pounds to the independent advice and debt sector and social supermarkets. All that plays a critical role in addressing poverty.
Ms Egan
Thank you, Minister. Community organisations in North Down that deal directly with individuals who live in hardship and poverty feel the loss of your Department's hardship fund. Will you consider reintroducing that fund or introducing a similar fund to support organisations that deal with individuals who are living in poverty?
Mr Lyons
I am aware of the impact that that has had, and the Member will be aware of the genesis of it and of how the funding for us to continue it is no longer in place. We will assess the implications of that and, as part of our wider anti-poverty work, take whatever steps we need to in order to make sure that we make the best use of the resources that we have for maximum impact.
Ms Forsythe
The Minister will be aware that home heating costs are particularly challenging for those who feel the cost-of-living pressures. Will he give an update on the fuel poverty strategy?
Mr Lyons
I have said that I will present the fuel poverty strategy by the end of the year, and that is still my intention. We know that, as we head into the winter, the issues become more pressing for people. I am well aware of the costs and difficulties that many people face. I will have the strategy before the Executive by the end of the year, but let us not forget that a strategy by itself does not heat people's homes. That is why, as part of the strategy, I will announce interventions that will help us as we seek to eradicate fuel poverty in Northern Ireland.