A leading social homes' provider has urged the Northern Ireland Executive to help cut waiting lists for social housing in the country by freeing up surplus land.

BIH Housing Association said it could build quality social housing for rent at minimal cost if ministers and local government made the sites available as the capital subsidy.

BIH Chief Executive Jean Fulton, speaking ahead of the opening of BIH's latest £1.2 million social housing development in Ballysillan, north Belfast, said: "Demand for affordable social housing is soaring – with waiting lists now at levels of the 1970s.

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"Soundings from the government's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) are not optimistic, and so we must be innovative in our approach to this problem.

"The single most expensive element of a building project is land. If public land was made available to us at a reduced cost – or no cost at all – then we could provide good, inexpensive housing to the government. The land is the key to unlocking this financial potential."

The Ballysillan project comprises 10 bungalows that provide accommodation for up to 31 elderly people.

TAL Ltd, the firm which built the BIH homes, has also constructed 17 private townhouses and apartments following an agreement from BIH to sell a portion of the land to them.

BIH said the profit from that sale will be used to build more social housing.

(NS/JM)