Northern Ireland's Housing Minister has pledged a further £6m for social housing maintenance programmes.

Margaret Ritchie said the investment will ensure a large number of additional improvement works will be carried out to thousands of houses across the province.

"The extra money will be spent on much-needed kitchen replacements and new heating systems, and will mean that thousands of people, who earlier in the year were not going to get this work done, will now have their homes improved," she said.

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"Just as importantly, the extra £6m will secure employment levels in the Housing Executive's 'Egan' contractors who will have a large body of new work to carry out."

Ms Ritchie said the extra money for Egan contractors has been made possible by the additional financial resources secured from within her departmental budgets.

"And the good news is that I hope to be able to find even more money towards the end of the financial year," she said.

"This will mean that the Egan contractors will have been allocated an additional £20m in the course of the year on top of their initial budget of £16m."

The Minister added: "In the context of a very pressurised housing budget this is a great outcome for the Egan contractors, and for the thousands of construction sector workers who depend on those contracts for their livelihoods."

(PR/KMcA)