The results of the assessment of housing needs undertaken by local authorities at the end of March last year, indicated a total of 39,176 households in need of local authority housing. In addition, the housing needs of a further 6,400 households were considered by local authorities as being most suitably met by other measures, including voluntary housing, rent supplementation and other social housing schemes.
The number of houses completed or acquired by local authorities during 1999 was approximately 3,700 which compares with 3,290 in 1998 and 3,217 in 1997. I expect that authorities will commence the construction of, or acquire, in excess of 5,500 houses this year and that the level of house completions, including acquisitions, will be in excess of 4,000 units. Figures in relation to the number of starts-completions for the first quarter of 2000 will be published shortly.
The Government is giving a particularly high priority to the issue of housing. This is reflected in the national development plan and in the package of measures recently launched by the Government's document, Action on Housing, copies of which sent to all Deputies and which include, inter alia, increased targets for the provision of local authority housing over the period 2000-06 together with a range of other measures in relation to social housing provision. The local authority housing programme is, of course, only one of a range of ways in which the needs of households on local authority waiting lists may be met and I am confident that the enhanced multi-annual local authority housing programme together with increased output from the complementary social housing measures and vacancies occurring in the existing stock, will enable the housing needs of some 11,000 households to be met this year, compared with some 9,200 last year and that the increased social housing output over the coming four years will meet the needs of more than 50,000 households. The number of households on local authority waiting lists at the end of this year will depend both on the extent of social housing output and the number of additional households applying for accommodation. I am not, therefore, in a position to forecast the likely outturn at the end of the year.
While my Department will continue to support local authorities to achieve their housing programmes in terms of providing the necessary capital funding and forward commitment for house starts it is a matter for each individual local authority to implement the programmes which they have put forward for commencement this year. I expect local authorities to afford a high priority to meeting the social housing needs of households on waiting lists and I am prepared to facilitate any further proposals which local authorities may put forward for the current year.
