Vacant houses 'must be occupied'

Margaret Ritchie wants vacant homes occupied

The social development minister has said she wants to see more of Northern Ireland's vacant properties occupied.

There are currently 40,000 vacant houses in Northern Ireland. Margaret Ritchie said more than 4,000 of them could be let overnight.

She said owners whose properties needed major refurbishment would be receiving letters outlining what improvement grants were available.

"I have invested £40m in grants for the uplift of houses," she said

"We will be writing out to all those people who own those empty homes affording them the opportunity to apply for an improvement grant, whereby adding to the number of houses that will be available for allocation that will deal with the record levels of homelessness."