Mixed housing 'could be the future' in North

Soaring house prices could force luxury homeowners to live next to affordable developments, an Assemblyman warned today.

Gregory Campbell is leading an inquiry into the future of low-cost housing and said mixed developments could be the only solution to the shortage of so-called social housing.

His Social Development Committee is conducting an inquiry into a report by John Semple which advocated forcing developers to allocate up to a fifth of new homes for those struggling to get onto the property ladder.

“It could be the case that the marketplace provides its own impetus so that it could be the case the private sector housing with significant numbers of affordable housing are cheaper to some degree than private sector housing in terms of single units,” he said.

“People might find that if they want to get onto the ladder or move up, their options might be limited because getting a single home could be £50-100,000 (€74-149,000) more expensive than getting a dwelling beside affordable homes.”

Mr Campbell’s committee is to hear evidence today from the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations.

Members have still to make up their minds about the way forward.