An issue that is affecting many of our towns and communities across Northern Ireland is the ever-increasing number of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and the urgent need for tougher, smarter regulations from councils, which are tasked with dealing with applications for such houses.

On Friday afternoon, I shared the figures on the licensed HMOs that are in my constituency. In my home town of Portadown, there are 38 licensed HMOs, with 14 on one street. Let us just think for a moment what that means for those who have lived there for years. We must ask, "What sort of impact will that have on those people?". We see the erosion of community identity, the character of the area changed forever, increased noise and disturbance, pressure on public infrastructure, falling property values — and that is just scratching the surface. The reality, which is something that very few will say out loud, is that we are witnessing the unravelling of local communities as family homes are turned overnight into overcrowded bedsits. We cannot continue to ignore the problem or bury our head in the sand.

On Saturday, just the day after I revealed those statistics, the front page headline in 'The Daily Telegraph' read:

"Starmer to rent homes for Channel migrants".

The story stated:

"Home Office figures show the contractors are now responsible for housing 65,700 asylum seekers"

Yes: a private contractor working with the Home Office is offering landlords in England five years' guaranteed rent, paid for by the taxpayer, to house asylum seekers in some of those very same HMOs. Is it not rather shameful that a practice that we already know has been happening in Northern Ireland continues to go unchecked? We are witnessing record numbers of illegal immigrants entering the United Kingdom. The Government's failure to control our borders is leading directly to the displacement of local people. We must not stay silent. To anyone who says that it cannot be sorted, I say this: in the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency, border crossings in the United States have gone down by 95%. The policy is simple: come illegally, leave immediately.