Gaston: HMOs, asylum housing and infrastructure failures are driving rents higher in Ballymena & beyond

Rising rents in Ballymena and across Northern Ireland are being fuelled by a chronic lack of housing supply, failures in waste water infrastructure and the use of taxpayer-funded accommodation for asylum seekers, North Antrim MLA Timothy Gaston has claimed.

Speaking during an Assembly debate on housing affordability on Monday, January 19, Mr Gaston said pressures being felt acutely in Ballymena and surrounding areas were the result of structural failures that have been ignored for too long, leaving working families and young people increasingly unable to secure a home.

“No one in the House can deny that rents are rising sharply and that families across Northern Ireland are being squeezed,” he told MLAs.

“In my constituency, young couples cannot get started, families are stuck in temporary accommodation and working people are spending an even greater share of their wages just to keep a roof over their heads.”

Ballymena waste water capacity under scrutiny

Mr Gaston said the debate had “misdiagnosed” the root causes of rising rents, arguing that the fundamental issue was supply and demand — with housing supply being choked off by infrastructure constraints, particularly around waste water treatment in the Ballymena area.

“One of the main reasons that we cannot build in Northern Ireland is the failure of Northern Ireland Water,” he said. “That creates the demand. We simply do not have the supply to meet the demand.”

He pointed to what he described as a “real, live case” in Cullybackey, which is served by the Ballymena waste water treatment works.

Mr Gaston told the Assembly that, in July 2025, the Infrastructure Minister had stated that the works had capacity to facilitate development and that no upgrade was planned.

However, he said this position had changed dramatically by January 2026, when NI Water advised that the area was now a “closed catchment” due to severe waste water constraints.

North Antrim MLA Timothy Gaston (TUV)

Quoting the response, Mr Gaston said NI Water had confirmed:

“Due to the level of waste water constraints this area serving 22 Ballymena Road, Cullybackey, is a closed catchment to all new developments that will see an intensification of foul sewage discharge. The downstream waste water infrastructure in Cullybackey is such that there is no capacity for new foul connections.”

He added that NI Water had made clear that “the only way the developers will be able to achieve a connection is when NI Water undertakes an upgrade of the downstream wastewater infrastructure”, despite having “no plans to undertake the required upgrade”.

“In essence, that area in my constituency is closed, and the Minister does not want to know,” Mr Gaston said. “That is a major problem that adds to the backlog.”

HMOs and pressure on settled communities

The North Antrim MLA also highlighted houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) as another factor driving up rents, particularly in working-class areas.

“Houses in multiple occupation are pushing up rents in working-class areas and hollowing out settled communities,” he said, adding that the current system for regulating HMOs was “outdated and detached from local reality”.

Mr Gaston argued that councils should take responsibility for managing HMOs within their own areas.

Asylum accommodation and rent pressures

Turning to asylum accommodation, Mr Gaston said the use of hotels and private housing was further reducing the availability of homes for local people.

“We are housing asylum seekers in hotels and private properties at taxpayers’ expense while failing to build enough social houses for our own people,” he said.

He named government contractor Mears as being “at the centre” of the issue, claiming the company was “hoovering up housing stock right across Northern Ireland”.

“The more houses that Mears hoovers up, the fewer houses that there are for local people to avail themselves of,” he said. “That, in turn, pushes up rents in other areas.”

Mr Gaston told the Assembly that, according to information provided to him by the Executive Office, 288 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels as of last May.

“That is not compassionate policy but, rather, reckless mismanagement that shrinks housing supply, drives up rents and fuels tensions,” he said.

Opposition challenge and wider political clash

During the debate, SDLP MLA Mark Durkan intervened to note that the Opposition had brought forward multiple motions in recent years on housing supply and water infrastructure.

Mr Gaston acknowledged this, saying he intended to “reinforce that point”.

He also criticised Sinn Féin’s contribution to the debate, accusing the party of ignoring the role of the Infrastructure Minister in overseeing NI Water.

The Deputy Speaker intervened several times to urge Mr Gaston to return specifically to the issue of social housing affordability, eventually bringing his contribution to a close as his speaking time expired.

Concluding his remarks, Mr Gaston warned against rent control measures, which he described as “so-called third-generation rent controls”, and argued that without urgent investment in waste water infrastructure, housing pressures would continue.

“Unless we get our waste water infrastructure right, we are always going to have that problem,” he said.

“Demand is greater than supply. We need to get supply right.”