To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any actions his Department has taken to ensure all existing social housing stock is transitioned from home heating oil, before the end of the 2022- 27 Assembly mandate.

My Department is currently consulting on proposals for a revised Decent Homes Standard, which is the standard that all social housing is required to meet. The consultation includes proposals to support the transition towards low carbon heating. I aim to publish the revised Decent Homes Standard later in 2026, but a period of transition will be required for social housing providers which will extend beyond the mandate.

In relation to the Housing Executive, I have sought the requested information from the NIHE Chief Executive, who has advised me as follows:

“It will not be possible to transition the Housing Executive’s remaining oil heating systems to gas or no/low carbon alternatives by this date. The Housing Executive currently has some 24,305 oil boiler heating systems in the dwellings in its stock. On average each year we are changing 980 of these to gas or other heating systems, as allowed by the funding that is available (given all of our stock investment priorities) and the delivery contracts that are in place.

In addition, a high number of these oil heating systems are in properties in rural areas where the gas infrastructure is not available. Our intention is to eventually change these to air or ground source heat pumps, and we have been piloting these in a number of schemes - primarily the Low Carbon Heating Programme - to inform the review of our Heating Policy and our intended introduction of a new Landlord Decarbonised Heating Policy (as noted in our Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy & Action Plan). However, we are not yet in a position – in both delivery and funding terms – to roll out the scale of programme that would be required to address all of these off the grid properties, and certainly not by 2027.”