NIHE has paid £46 million for temporary accommodation to hotels and B&B’s

The NI Housing Executive has paid more than £46 million to the providers of temporary accomodation in the Foyle Constituency alone in the past five years. 

The figure, paid to hotels and bed and breakfast establishments which the Housing Executive uses as temporary accomodation, was obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by Derry Aontú representative Emmet Doyle.  

Commenting on the £46 million figure, Mr Doyle said: "Aontú had issued a request for information to the Housing Executive some months ago seeking the names of hotels and B&Bs being used for temporary accommodation in the City; the nightly rate agreed with each; and the total amount paid for each of the last five years. The request was refused.  

"I appealed on the basis that it was public money being used. My appeal was partially upheld last week, giving us the total amount paid to each provider for the last five years, but their names and nightly rates were again withheld," he added.

"I admit to being shocked when I collated the numbers, and had them checked by multiple third parties to ensure their accuracy. 

"In 2020/21, £5,255,463.15 was paid to 60 providers in the city.  In 2021/22, the figure rose to £5,505,674.67 despite the number of providers dropping to 52. In 2022/23, the figures again rose to £7,426,873.28 paid to 56 providers, the following year another rise to a staggering £11,733,087.06 paid to 63 providers.  In 2023/24 there was another massive rose in costs to £16,146,191.84 paid to 59 providers.

"The top ten providers pocketed more than £30 million (£30,001,328.89). One provider alone made over £7m in those five years (7,697,558.19).

"In total, over five years, providers, in an anonymised list to protect their names, were paid £46,067,290.00 just in the Foyle constituency," said Mr Doyle.

The Aontu representative described the figure as "astonishing".

He added: "The Executive has provided just over twice what has been spent on temporary accommodation in hotels and B&Bs for Derry to build new social houses for the entire six counties, £100m.

"I am dealing with family’s week in and week out who have lived in hotel rooms week after week.  They have no security of tenure; some don’t have clothes washing facilities and there are very little premises that provide any mechanism for cooking.  I have personally seen the uncertainty and the effect it has on the many young children who are living in these premises, not sure where they will go back to after school," he said.

"In April I made public that there will be those who apply for housing right now in areas like Galliagh or Shantallow that will wait nearly five years to be allocated a home. How will those people feel when they read these figures?

"The current system of housing is not fit for purpose, and the parties in the Executive have stood over this crisis, providing a measly number of new homes throughout the region. 

"Have they met the young families that I have, some of whom were told the room they had slept in for several nights in the city was no longer available because of a big event like the Jazz festival? Obviously not – and the blame lies directly at their doors.

"These figures also bring into question a number of decision that the Housing Executive senior management have made in recent years.  During Covid, they worked to ensure that no-one would be without a roof of some description over their heads, which is admirable.  However, long since the end of the Covid restrictions, it has placed people from other parts of the North in Derry, many of who are vulnerable or have support needs – we have all seen it," said Mr Doyle.

Mr Doyle added that Derry was "not an unwelcoming city" but he questioned how many rooms in hotels in Derry were being used to accommodate those that would not be housed in their own areas because of their behaviour? 

He said: "I raised it several times even with the NI Housing Executive Chief Executive, and it refused to halt the practice, despite many placements being made by the Belfast office at weekend and without prior knowledge of our local office, who are not to blame.

"It must also be said in the current climate that these placements are not related to migration," he added.

"We have two Sinn Féin MLAs and one DUP MLA in this constituency.  The Executive they lead has made decisions that have brought us to this crisis.  Sinn Fein held the Communities portfolio for two years before the latest extended Stormont holiday, and the DUP has held it since.  They cannot blame anyone else for these problems; they have both passed budgets that have led directly to this.

"As for the other parties, why haven’t they yet demanded these figures? They are obviously waiting for others to do it so they could issue press releases claiming credit.

"Serious questions now must be asked about why we have people living in B&Bs and hotels for the formative part of their lives and their children’s lives. 

"Now that Aontú have been successful in uncovering this information for Derry, we have already begun work on doing the same for every other constituency.  Is the practice of pass the buck – literally making millionaires of some premise owners on the back of Executive failure, widespread and what is the total cost?  We will make all of this public on receipt.”

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive told The Derry News: 

A Northern Ireland Housing Executive spokesperson said: “The rise in demand for social housing and increased numbers of individuals and families who are homeless and require temporary accommodation is well documented. The number of households requiring temporary accommodation has been increasing year-on-year with 4,527 placements made in 2019/20, rising to 11,887 in 2024/25. Over this period the amount we have spent on temporary accommodation has also increased from £6.93million in 2019/20 to £27.9million last year.

“New housing supply is the key to unlocking a secure future for those experiencing homelessness, so having an ambitious vision to make that happen is important and reflects the commitments made under the Programme for Government and the Housing Supply Strategy.

"We have been also working to increase the supply of more cost-effective temporary accommodation in order to reduce the use accommodation such as hotels. Throughout the year we have secured 257 additional single- let, private rental, properties across Northern Ireland, and brought in almost 70 NIHE and Housing Associations properties to use as temporary accommodation.  Our focus on delivering better value for money in the sourcing of these accommodation solutions has delivered a 5% reduction in the average nightly spend on nightly cost of non-standard accommodation.

"We very much welcome the Minister for Communities approval for our initiative to purchase 600 homes, over a three-year period, to use as temporary accommodation.

“We will continue to work with partners and stakeholders to meet the increased demand for homes and temporary accommodation and welcome the support of all local representatives and stakeholders.”