To ask the Minister for Communities what action he is taking to improve the quality of repair work on Housing Executive properties.

Mr Lyons (The Minister for Communities)

The maintenance of Housing Executive properties is an operational matter for the Housing Executive to address. The Housing Executive response contracts have quality-level standards and are subject to regular post-work inspections that also assess the quality of the work. Where quality issues are found, either through those inspections or through other means, they are raised with the contractor or the Housing Executive’s direct labour organisation to remedy. That is monitored through the monthly contract performance meetings. Where quality issues have been raised, the Housing Executive holds the payment until the works have been completed to the satisfactory standard. If issues with quality persist, the Housing Executive will hold escalation meetings with the contractor and improvement plans will be put in place and monitored until standards have been met.

Mr Lyons

I meet the Housing Executive regularly, and I am certainly happy to raise the issue. Members throughout the House will have dealt with such issues for those who are unhappy with work that has been done or the time that it has taken. If she has some specific examples, I will be more than happy to raise them.

Ms Forsythe

Does the Minister agree that borrowing powers for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive are a key element, if it is to deliver?

Mr Lyons

Absolutely, that is an issue. We now know that the backlog is over £10 billion of investment required to deal with the maintenance backlog, routine investment and a retrofit programme. That is why it is so important that we get that confirmation that the Housing Executive is able to borrow on the same basis as other housing providers and Governments elsewhere in the United Kingdom: for example, councils. I believe that I now have Executive support for this, if recent conversations are anything to go by. I have engaged with the Finance Minister on this; obviously, the Department of Finance is responsible for progressing the negotiations with Treasury. I am hopeful, however, that we can get a resolution to the issue and that we can get the confirmation that we have been looking for for a long time so that we can borrow against our assets not just to build more homes but, importantly, to do the retrofitting, maintenance and repair work that is so badly required.

Mr Allen

I appreciate that the Minister has already mentioned that most of this is an operational matter for the Housing Executive. However, is he able to advise whether he has had any engagement with the Housing Executive on providing funding for its cavity wall insulation plans? If you will indulge me, Mr Speaker, I encourage Members, if they have time between now and 3.00 pm, to engage with National Energy Action, who are taking photos in the Great Hall to mark Fuel Poverty Awareness Day, which is tomorrow.

Mr Lyons

That is an important issue, and it was something that I raised in a debate in the House in early 2017. It is hugely important, because we want to make sure that people can live in warm and comfortable homes, and insulation plays a really important role in that. That will be part of my conversations with the Housing Executive, and it is part of the wider retrofit plan to make sure that we have more energy-efficient homes. That again speaks to the fact that we need to see that change in borrowing powers for the Housing Executive.