merrion street

Minister for Housing, Planning, Community & Local Government Mr Simon Coveney T.D. today (20 February, 2017) published a comprehensive status list of social housing schemes that are advancing nationwide.

“It is important that we publish this list at this point in time so people can judge for themselves the progress in their own individual counties. Local Authorities and AHBs have the resources to progress these schemes and I want to see them providing homes all over the country.”

Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, the Housing Agency and the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government have been advancing a suite of social housing projects, through a range of delivery mechanisms and programmes, and a rich construction pipeline is in place, which will see over 8,430 new social houses being built over the coming years. This represents a major escalation and acceleration in the social housing build programme.
In terms of immediate delivery, just over 650 new social houses were built in 2016 and importantly, a further 90 schemes, delivering 1,829 newly built social houses, went on site in 2016.
Projects continue to be prepared and brought forward by local authorities and approved housing bodies. The department will continue to approve projects to ensure that there are sufficient projects advanced and ready to avail of the significant increases in funding that will be available over the coming years. In the context of the Housing Needs Assessment, published in 2016, we will also ensure that new homes are delivered in the communities that need them most.
Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness sets out the Government’s ambitious social housing programme to deliver 47,000 new social housing units by 2021, with funding in place of €5.35 billion. Of these 47,000 new social houses that will be delivered for citizens, 26,000 of these will be homes that will be delivered via construction or in some cases through major refurbishment works.
“I accept that progress has been at times slow on the build side of the social housing programme but we have a major pipeline of projects now and Local Authorities & Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) must get on with the job of building them,” ended Minister Coveney.
The list of projects on a county by county basis are available at;
http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/rebuilding-ireland/construction/rebuilding-ireland-social-housing-construction-status-report-q4-2016

Note for Editors

Evidence of the increasing social housing construction pipeline is evident in the Social Housing Construction Status Report for Q4 2016, The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government will update and publish the Status Report on a quarterly basis. This Report includes details of all construction projects, broken down by programme and local authority, which will deliver new and much needed additional housing stock to alleviate the current shortage of social housing. This delivery will include construction by Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, Regeneration Projects, Capital Assistance Schemes (CAS), as well as Rapid Delivery projects, and projects funded under the Capital Advance and Leasing Facility (CALF).
There are more social houses that will be built under a public Private Partnership and these are not included in this Report. Furthermore, local authorities have refurbished 7,300 approx. social houses over the last three years that had become vacant and will refurbish a further 800 plus this year. These social houses brought back into use under the Voids programme are not included in this Report.
In terms of progress across each local authority area, it should be noted that from time to time individual local authorities may focus on specific initiatives, such as regeneration projects and this can impact on the pace of delivery across other delivery streams. For detailed information on each local authority’s individual social housing construction programme please contact the relevant local authority directly. For queries in relation to the overall programme contact ……D/HPCLG

The Department is committed working with all stakeholders in order to support and facilitate delivery, including streamlining and improving its processes. To this end, a review of the Department’s processes and procedures for approving and advancing social housing construction projects was recently completed and can be accessed on the Department’s website at http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/rebuilding-ireland/construction/social-housing-design-approval-and-delivery-processes-review. Implementation of its recommendations, which has already commenced, will further accelerate the delivery of social housing projects through improved timeframes for advancing construction projects, encouraging wider use of a one stage approval process, design efficiency, early engagement by all stakeholders and adoption of reasonable time-frames for entire process (project phases and approval stages).