Laying the Foundation: Housing Actions Report for Ireland

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government published Laying the Foundations: Housing Actions Report.

Alan Kelly T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, published Laying the Foundations: Housing Actions Report, last week, which set out 31 actions taken across the housing spectrum so far. This is in response to Ireland’s need for 25,000 new homes to be built each year in order to recover from the economic collapse in the property market, only half of which Ireland is providing.

The report included actions such as the publication and implementation of a €4Bn Social Housing Strategy, which sets out how an additional 35,000 homes would be added to the social housing system in Ireland by 2020, while a further 75,000 households could be accommodated with support in the private rented sector.

The report set out the kick-starting of local authority direct-build social housing programme, the refurbishment and return to the use of 5,000 vacant local authority social housing stock between 2014-2015 and an additional 420 housing staff posts to local authorities to direct build. Local authorities have lacked the staff needed to engage in the major house building programmes that are now required, and so new staff has been sanctioned to speed up the delivery of such projects.

Part V of the Planning and Development Act has been reformed, meaning that social housing dwellings will be delivered creating mixed tenure developments, ensuring local authorities will have a steady stream of social housing units from the private sector for years to come.

There has been a continued roll-out of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), which is operational in 19 local authorities areas, the establishment of the Dublin Housing Supply and Co-ordination Task Force and the establishment of an affordable rental pilot scheme, which will be rolled out this year.

A vacant Site Levy, has been introduced to tackle the hoarding of land which is suitable for housing, and will take effect in 2019.

These are just a few of the achievements set out in the report.

The Minister called on the government to “continue to implement the Social Housing Strategy 2020, and to continue to ramp up the delivery of social housing that has already begun. Our local authorities have not had the capacity to engage in multiple building projects until now.

“The foundations for dealing with the problems in housing have clearly been laid.

“And, if built on correctly by the incoming Government, will bear fruit in the time ahead.”

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