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Paula Bradshaw of Alliance says it’s a “very, very impressive statement here today”.

She asks of the minister is “collaborating with the Department of Health on introducing housing for those scenarios where maybe you would need a live-

in carer”.

Ms Ní Chuilín responds that she will be discussing these issues with the health minister.

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Sinn Féin’s Colm Gildernew refers to homelessness and wants to know what is being done to tackle the issue sustainably.

The minister says “if people are homeless” there is a need “to help them, work with them and support them when their tenancy is allocated”.

“We need to give people hope, not just for the sake of it,” says Ms Ní Chuilín.

“We’re here to serve everyone and that’s what we’ll do.”

The DUP's Christopher Stalford says "an insidious combination of private landlordism and over-development is destroying the character of many of the communities of the inner city".

He wants the minister's assurance to these communities that the strategy "will address these issues".

Ms Ní Chuilín says Belfast is "going to through a massive regeneration" and that local council policies demand the inclusion of social and public housing alongside private housing.

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Órlaithí Flynn of Sinn Féin asks about increasing rents in west and north Belfast due to the number of low income families struggling to access social housing.

The minister says the local housing allowance "almost puts a cap on what can be charged" but it is "too fragile and too volatile".

She says housing association rents are becoming unaffordable.

Matthew O’Toole of the SDLP says there is “a lot of ambition in here” but adds, “we will need to see delivery on that”.

The South Belfast MLA says there was a £39.3m allocation of FTC (Financial Transactions Capital)to the minister’s department and wants to know if she is “confident it can be spent this year”.

“I don’t want any FTC ever being returned,” responds the minister.

“Over ambition in co-ownership is better in being able to spend that budget,” adds Ms Ní Chuilín.

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UUP MLA Robbie Butler says “one thing jumps out at me” which is the “piece in and around intimidation points”.

He says it is “also abused” and wants to know what steps the minister will take with the justice minister to ensure the “process is as fair as possible”.

Ms Ní Chuilín says she hasn’t spoken to the justice minister about this yet, but is open to the idea.

“I want to make sure that people who have to leave their home, as a result of domestic violence, are now considered intimidated,” says the minister.

Jonathan Buckley of the DUP says he was critical of the closure of the “right to buy scheme”, adding that he believes it’s “critical for working families to fulfil the aspiration of home ownership”.

He wants to know what alternatives officials are looking at.

Ms Ní Chuilín says “co-ownership needs to provide better models”, adding “if people are trying to buy their own homes, I’m trying to help them as well”.

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Seán Lynch, the minister’s Sinn Féin party colleague, asks her what is being done to protect tenants in the private rented sector which he says “is the most unregulated in these islands”.

“We need to protect residents in the private rental sector as much as we can,” says the minister.

She adds that people need to be “clear about what is available to them”.

Alex Easton of the DUP says he wants assurances that "different types of housing will be looked at to address the different social needs" and to deal with the adaptations required by some tenants.

The minister says adaptations to homes are one of the issues she is constantly asked about.

"We need to look after our ageing population and ensure that their homes are fit for purpose," she adds.

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Sinéad Ennis (above) of Sinn Féin asks the minister how realistic the Housing Executive reforms are "without the removal of historic debt and the continuation of being taxed as a corporation"?

The minister says the executive will not be able to make the Housing Executive exempt from corporation tax or tackle its historic debt without reclassification.

Mike Nesbitt of the UUP asks the minister to outline more of the “governance arrangements for this new proposed body that’s going to be the landlord” in the housing executive.

“Any service, or product, or support delivered by the Housing Executive, regardless of how it’s configured, will have accountability to tenants and to the department,” responds the minister.

She says in reference to the Housing Executive, “we need to give them freedom and flexibility to borrow money”.

“There will be no threat to public accountability, people won’t even notice any difference,” adds Ms Ní Chuilín.

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Alliance’s Kellie Armstrong calls the minister’s plans “very ambitious” and adds “this is well needed across NI”.

She asks about shared housing and mixed tenure.

Ms Ní Chuilín says shared housing “is there and it will be there”.

Martina Anderson of Sinn Féin says she thinks this is the most important housing statement she has heard in years.

She asks her party colleague about monitoring the implementation of the policies, particularly when addressing "chronic inequality in housing in Derry and in north and west Belfast".

"These priorities will all be monitored by the minister of communities," Ms Ní Chuilín replies.

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Mark Durkan of the SDLP "very much" welcomes the statement.

He wants to know how people who are currently struggling to pay their mortgages can be helped to prevent them falling into homelessness.

The minister says she will look again at ways to support "people in mortgage distress".

Paula Bradley of the DUP is deputy chair of the Communities Committee.

She describes the minister's statement as "positive and visionary".

Ms Bradley asks about North Belfast, the constituency she shares with the minister, which has the geatest number of tower blocks in NI.

She also asks how the reforms will affect young people and wants a timeline for the reforms.

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The minister says that "for anyone to be decanted from those tower blocks, the Housing Executive need to get land". She says the department is doing a trawl for land for purchase.

On a timeline, she says she doesn't want to prioritise the reforms to short, medium and long term.

Ms Ní Chuilín adds that she wants to see co-ownership opportunities increased for younger people.

Carál Ní Chuilín continues, “the current rental structure doesn’t work” adding that “social rents must be affordable to tenants, and they will be”.

She says “more work needs to be done on the proposal briefly outlined here”.

“The current situation is most certainly worse and the scale of the investment even greater,” since 2018, says the minister.

“I have set out to my executive colleagues that I will focus consideration on options that promise to retain what is valuable about our Housing Executive model,” says Ms Ní Chuilín.

“We can build a model that is effective and meets the needs of tenants here,” she adds.

The minister says there is an “imperative for us to reduce housing stress”.

“The targets for social housing are far too low,” says the minster, adding that she wants to ensure that “houses are built where houses are needed”.

Ms Ní Chuilín says she’s conducting an exercise to “identify surplus public land that can be used for social housing”.

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Turning to the private rental sector, the minister says there are “twice as many families in private rentals than social housing”.

“They can be asked to leave in four weeks, just imagine the stress if that happened to you” she says .

“We haven’t built enough social housing and therefore a generation has been excluded from having a secure home,” says the minister.

“I will develop new ways to help people into home ownership, if that is their choice,” she adds.

“The co-ownership scheme is currently helping over 1,000 people a year to buy a new home,” says Ms Ní Chuilín .

She says officials are looking at intermediate rental housing options.

“Some of these are deep underlying issues which have been there for some years,” concludes the minister, adding “we need to get on with it, we need to build more social homes”.

The next item of business is a statement from Communities Minister Carál Ní Chuilín on Housing Policy.

She says she's asking the assembly for their support for “this ambitious programme of work”.

The minister refers to housing stress, which she explain is the “number of households on the social housing waiting list with an acute need for a home”.

In September 2020, the number of households experiencing housing stress was 29,539, compared to 13,042 in 2002/2003, she says.

“We see the human face of this everyday in our constituency offices,” says Ms Ní Chuilín.

“There are far more families with children renting in the private rented sector than social housing,” says the minister, adding “we need to do more, but we also need change”.

The Sinn Féin minister says the New Decade, New Approach agreement established a commitment to address housing issues.

Ms Ní Chuilín outlines some of the financial difficulties facing the Housing Executive and private landlords.

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She says that over the next 11 years, £3bn would be required, something which the “Housing Executive can only afford about half of this requirement.

She adds that the executive could possible fund it by finding £100m from capital DEL each year, but asks “where would we take it from?”

As a result, the minister says “we are seeking an alternative which can enable the housing executive as a landlord to borrow” - something that it cannot do at present as it’s “classified as a quasi-public cooperation”.

Ms Ní Chuilín says changing the classification would see the Housing Executive “as a landlord, will secure the freedom to borrow and have the ability to invest in its own homes”.

She adds that she plans to change its classification “to a mutual or co-operative designation so it may borrow or secure a sustainable future for all of its 85,000 homes and provide security for tenants and future generations”.

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Speaker Alex Maskey calls the members to order.

There's a brief piece of business to get the session going.

It's the first reading of the Criminal Justice Committal Reform Bill.

Justice Minister Naomi Long moves the motion and the clerk reads the title of the bill into the record.

Here's a brief snapshot of indicative timings for today's plenary session at the assembly.

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Welcome to our live coverage of business at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Today on the hill we have everything from housing to booze and greenhouse gases, plus Question Time for the Agriculture and Communities ministers.

The action starts at 10:30 with a ministerial statement on housing policy.

Join us then.