The Strangford MLA was speaking after hosting the launch of the New Foundations: The Route to Low Carbon Homes report from the Forum for a Better Housing Market. It looks at how to achieve low carbon homes in Northern Ireland, with local homes having the worst thermal performance in the UK.

“There is a pressing need to decarbonise our housing stock and I thank the Forum for its invaluable work with this report,” said Ms Armstrong.

“I was pleased to see much of what Alliance is calling for in our Green New Deal proposals to be similar to suggestions contained within this report. That includes retrofitting all social housing and providing grants to retrofit private homes, delivering a new skills strategy to address upskilling and retraining for the green economy, and creating a green economy taskforce to inform the government of crucial policy interventions. 

“However, there needs to be a concerted cross-Departmental commitment in order to achieve low carbon homes, particularly helping our most vulnerable. It is vital we do all we can to provide affordable living in homes which do not make our climate crisis even worse. We owe it to future generations.”