Latest news with #DepartmentForCommunities
BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Social housing: Targets hit by Stormont budget challenges
Stormont's budget will only fund work on about 1,000 new social houses this year, far short of the Northern Ireland Executive's Programme for Government committed to starting work on at least 5,850 new build social homes by equates to about 2,000 new starts per year which would be a big step up compared to the delivery rate of recent on the basis of the current budget the number of homes started this year will be lower than the 1,504 started last year. Figures published last month show that in the first quarter of this year 49,083 households in Northern Ireland were on a social housing waiting list. The Department for Communities, which is the main funder for social housing, has allocated £63m to social has a total capital budget of about £270m but most of that is already committed to existing department can bid for additional money through the year in budget reallocation exercises, known as monitoring rounds.A monitoring round is due to be held this month but there is no certainty about how much money will be available or how it will be department would need an additional £62m to keep it on track to hit the Programme for Government target.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
More than 100 historic sites damaged across NI
More than 100 specially protected archaeological sites and historic monuments have been damaged or vandalised in Northern Ireland over the last five of the breaches occurred on or near farmland including an ancient field system in County Antrim and a centuries-old ceremonial site in County are 2,000 historic monuments in Northern Ireland that are protected by law, with some dating back almost 10,000 latest figures on damage and vandalism have led to fresh calls for more awareness to be raised around the importance of such historical sites and Department for Communities has responsibility for protecting historic monuments here. Paul Logue is a senior official with the department's historic environment said: "Archaeological sites represent a unique source of information about the lives of our ancestors and how they adapted to and changed their environment."Unauthorised works at scheduled sites remove or degrade that archaeological source of information and can be likened to removing an important book from a library and burning it before anyone has had a chance to read it." What are historic monuments? There are currently around 35,500 archaeological monuments recorded in the Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland (HERoNI).But only around 2,000 of them are scheduled, which means they have statutory include many prehistoric sites, forts, churches, castles, maritime sites, and also more recent industrial and defence sites and monuments are discovered every year, often during building excavations, the farming of land and changes in weather conditions revealing ancient News NI previously reported on how in 2022 a spell of hot weather dried up a swamp in the Loup area that had been concealing a man-made island, known as a crannog. Special permission must be sought before any works are carried out on scheduled monuments to protect them from to get the proper permissions or unlawfully disturbing them can lead to a court summons and a January 2024 a building contractor was fined £50,000 for demolishing a protected historic monument on a site he intended to develop in County obtained by BBC News NI show that there have been over 100 breach cases at scheduled monuments in the last five years. A breakdown of the figures include damage to an ancient field system in County Antrim and a unique set of historic limekilns near incidents include graffiti at a 5,000-year-old tomb site open to the public in County Down.A path was also unlawfully inserted into an ancient ceremonial site near a burial cairn in the historic Davagh forest in County Forest is located at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains where a number of significant archaeological finds have been include the Beaghmore Stone Circles which were discovered in the late 1930s when a local worker, George Barnett, was cutting peat. Damage was also recorded at a number of historic canals in Newry and near the River Lagan in metal detecting was also a problem and in one instance a number of large holes were dug up at a medieval abbey site in Co Down. 'Farmers are responsible people' Some of the most serious damage cases occurred during the Covid period and around 30% of breaches occurred in urban areas, but most breaches were on Logue said: "The high percentage of farmland cases is most likely because Northern Ireland has a large amount of farmland in our landscape and the overwhelming number of protected monuments are on farmland."But overwhelmingly, we believe that Northern Ireland landowners and farmers are responsible people who in many cases have carefully looked after monuments on their land for generations. However, like any other section of society, a minority do not act responsibly."Seán Clarke is a Sinn Fein councillor and farmer from Broughderg who has reported the discovery of several historic artefacts from the land during his working life. Along with the local history group, he was instrumental in discovering a prehistoric site surrounding the ruins of an old school from the said: "We noticed that there was this deep bank in a double ring shape that surrounded the old playground, and we began to realise this was something much older."We reported it to the authorities and they said they believed it was a prehistoric ceremonial site, so we helped get it reported and registered."He added: "Down the years even on my own land I've discovered different things like old standing stones and stone circles."It's so important to protect these artefacts because they're part of our story, part of our past and once they're gone, they're gone forever, they can't be replicated." Paul Logue added: "The reality is we need the message out there that if you do damage heritage, you may end up with a criminal record."And that's not what we want, so we would just ask people to be cautious and remember these places and monuments are telling important stories about humanity."
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Anti-poverty strategy: Stormont to sign off plan after 18 years
Stormont ministers are expected to agree the Northern Ireland Executive's first-ever draft strategy to tackle poverty later on Thursday, BBC News NI March, Stormont's Executive Committee was found in breach of its legal obligation to adopt the strategy by a court anti-poverty strategy was first committed to 18 years ago with the aim of reducing social exclusion and Minister Gordon Lyons submitted a draft paper to ministers for consideration about six weeks ago. The minister previously described the document as a "realistic" but long-term plan to tackle must be signed off by ministers before it can go out for public will then return to the executive for any final changes to be considered before Stormont departments can begin to implement figures from the Department for Communities (DfC) suggest about 22% of children in Northern Ireland are growing up in figures also indicate that about 23% of children are in relative poverty and about 20% are in absolute poverty. What is the Stormont anti-poverty strategy? The anti-poverty strategy is a requirement inserted into the Northern Ireland Act, following the St Andrews Agreement in have been multiple court orders and legal challenges made as no strategy has ever been implemented in Northern January, judgment was reserved in a recent legal challenge brought against Stormont for "failing to adopt" an anti-poverty strategy for Northern months later at the High Court in Belfast, Stormont's Executive Committee was found in breach of its legal obligation to adopt a strategy. How is poverty measured? There are two main measurements of low income used by the government, absolute poverty and relative poverty. Income is counted as the money a household has to spend after housing costs are taken into poverty measures how many people this year cannot afford a set standard of living. The Department for Work and Pensions at Westminster currently defines it based on the living standard an average income could buy in the year ending in March 2011. If your income is 40% below this, after adjusting for rising prices since then, you are classed as living in absolute poverty is the number of people whose income is 40% below the average income individual is considered to be in relative poverty if they are living in a household with an income below 60% of the typical UK is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth of incomes in the population as a whole.
