North Belfast<\/a> currently suffers from a chronic social housing<\/a> shortage.<\/p>\n Last year, the Irish News revealed that the Catholic Church was given a 10,000-year lease on the site in 1985; however, the Housing Executive retained a freehold interest in the 0.6-acre parcel of land.<\/p>\n The Housing Executive previously said it did not put the St Kevin\u2019s site, which was managed by St Patrick\u2019s Church parish, on the market, adding the seller is required under the lease to seek written consent from it.<\/p>\n However, in a statement, the executive confirmed it has now agreed to lift any covenants linked to the potentially lucrative land.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter legal advice, we have agreed, in principle, to lift the restrictive covenants on the former site of St Kevin\u2019s Hall in north Belfast,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are currently dealing with this via our internal approval processes.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesman added that the executive supports \u201cthe provision of social housing at this site\u201d adding that \u201cno viable social housing proposal has been brought forward for it, despite housing associations exploring potential developments there\u201d.<\/p>\n The spokesman added that the executive \u201cexplored all options open\u201d to it and met with the current leaseholder”. <\/p>\n Fr Eddie Magee, Diocese of Down and Connor spokesman said the leasehold has not been sold.<\/p>\n \u201cThe parish continues to explore a number of proposed plans for this site, including the sale of the leasehold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Fr Magee added that \u201cin accordance with the stated aims and objectives of the Down and Connor Diocesan Trust, proceeds of any sale of parish property will seek to address outstanding parish debts and enable the parish to allocate funds for parish improvements and provide effective sacramental and pastoral provision to its parishioners\u201d.<\/p>\n Energy infrastructure firm SONI has previously expressed an interest in the landmark site.<\/p>\n The company, which works closely with Northern Ireland Electricity Networks, develops, operates and manages the local grid.<\/p>\n It said the St Kevin\u2019s site is one of a \u201cnumber of locations\u201d being considered for a substation in north Belfast.<\/p>\n \u201cAny site that is selected will be subject to a community consultation and the full planning process,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Frank Dempsey, from Carrick Hill Residents\u2019 Association, who recently met with SONI, was critical of the church and Housing Executive.<\/p>\n \u201cShame on the Catholic Church and the Housing Executive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHere we have a housing wating list in north Belfast and here we have a parish of St Patrick\u2019s with a housing waiting list bursting at the seams.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the Catholic Church seems fit to sell off this site that didn\u2019t belong to them, it was leased to them.\u201d <\/p>\n On the Housing Executive he added:<\/p>\n \u201cFor the Housing Executive\u2019s part, their war cry is about the need for social housing in north Belfast \u2013 here was this site and not only do they surrender it to the Catholic Church, they endorsed it by saying they had no further interest in the site and have lifted their covenant on the site,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Housing campaigners have said the Catholic Church and Housing Executive should be \u2018ashamed of themselves\u2019 after the way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1140216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[13744,6333,130773,78693,1144,13977,16,15],"class_list":["post-1140215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-catholic-church","tag-housing","tag-housing-executive","tag-north-belfast","tag-northern-ireland","tag-social-housing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117067211404028912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1140216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Derry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786303762_151_TYNW2ZPHUZFMDH7K25RUD4DYRQ.jpeg\")
<\/a>![\"Solar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786303763_690_WZWELARQ2NN2JG3SQJBAOUA6XE.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Frank](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/UA4XOZ2YPFBHJKM62RZDTD3TQE.JPG\")
Frank Dempsey of Carrick Hill Residents’ Association at the Former Kevin\u2019s Hall site.
PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n