The Social Housing Strategy
2020 provides a roadmap to meet the housing needs of all households on the housing list with flexibility to meet future demand. In total, 110,000 new social housing units are targeted for delivery with 35,000 new units to be delivered and 75,000 households to be supported mainly through the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme.
The use of a flexible mix of housing provision programmes under the Strategy, including the Rental Accommodation Scheme, the Housing Assistance Payment and the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme, provides for a more diverse delivery of homes and provides greater choice for households who require support to meet their housing requirements.
The detailed governance arrangements outlined in the Strategy include a high-level Oversight Group to oversee implementation, which I chair, a Project Board and five work streams dealing with finance; approved housing body delivery and operations; local authority delivery and operations; social housing reform; and the private rental market. In the course of 2015, the work streams provided analysis, guidance and recommendations to the Project Board and the Oversight Group on all aspects of social housing delivery and considered, inter alia, the optimum approach to delivering on the Strategy’s targets within the current constrained housing market, bearing in mind the possible effects on housing supply.
A key objective under the Strategy is to increase social housing output in the immediate, medium and longer term. In order to meet this objective it is necessary to avail of a mixture of delivery mechanisms. In the immediate term the acquisition of homes and the refurbishment of local authority dwellings offer quick solutions to house households on the waiting list. Leasing and renting also offer much needed immediate supply. Over the medium to longer term it will be important that local authorities and approved housing bodies deliver on the 5,000 unit build programme which has been approved.
I recently published the Social Housing Output in 2015 report which documents how 13,000 units of social housing were delivered in 2015 and targets the delivery of 17,000 units in 2016 . In the report, the Housing Agency acknowledges its support for the rejuvenation of social housing in Ireland and also commits to monitoring closely the issue of affordability going forward. The report is available on my Department’s website at: http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,44105,en.htm .
In terms of the housing sector in Ireland, more generally, increased supply across all markets is required. In order to stimulate the extra supply of houses, in line with the Government’s Construction 2020 Strategy, a number of important measures have been taken aimed at improving housing delivery viability and increasing supply.
The measures include the introduction of a vacant site levy; reductions in development contributions and a targeted development contribution rebate scheme in Dublin and Cork to encourage large scale developments at affordable prices; revised Part V provisions; initiatives to improve financing; implementation of new apartment guidelines; and legislative amendments to introduce greater flexibility and streamlining to the Strategic Development Zone provisions of the Planning and Development Acts. In addition, NAMA is aiming to deliver 20,000 residential units before the end of 2020, with 90% of these units to be in the greater Dublin area.
The Government strategy to address housing supply is comprehensive in terms of policy, legislation and funding. The focus for the period ahead will be on fully implementing both the Construction 2020 Strategy and the Social Housing Strategy 2020.
