The Housing Executive is opening a sub office in Fivemiletown.

It will be located in the Credit Union, 52 Main Street.

This will be a monthly service and will start on Thursday, 8th January, 2008 and operate from 10.00 am until 12 noon.

Thereafter, it will be on the 1st Thursday of every month and will operate for a period of six months initially. Housing Executive staff will be available to provide advice and assistance on the full range of housing services, including homelessness, housing benefit, rent payments and repairs.

Speaking on this innovative approach to service delivery, John McCartan, Housing Executive Manager for the Dungannon District said: "I am delighted that we are introducing this service to the people of Fivemiletown. This arrangement enables my staff to provide a local, accessible service to tenants to deal with enquiries on housing applications, rent and housing benefit accounts as well as repairs. The sub office will run for six months initially and we will assess the uptake of the service to determine the long term needs for this area of South Tyrone," he said.

"As an organisation through our 'Rural Homes and People' policy, we undertake a range of work to help meet the needs of rural dwellers. We want to ensure that rural residents are aware of the work we do and services we provide and hopefully the community of Fivemiletown, will avail of this new sub office."

Phyllis Clarke, Housing Community Network representative from Fivemiletown attended the launch of the service and said: "We are delighted this service has been made available by the Housing Executive. I would encourage all local residents to make use of it. We in the community group will be distributing fliers in the local area regarding the sub-office."