Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2019
86. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if the annual growth of local authority housing lists has been accurately established with a view to ensuring the provision of an adequate number of local authority direct build houses on an annual basis thereby ensuring waiting lists do not expand further; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16395/19]
View answerDetails on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority area are provided in the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA), an exercise which has been carried out on an annual basis since 2016. The assessments are published annually and the most recent assessment, carried out in June 2018, is available at the following link:
Local Authority Housing Waiting Lists Data
In June 2016, the assessment showed that there were 91,600 households on local authority waiting lists nationally. This fell to 85,799 in June 2017, and the most recent assessment in 2018 shows that 71,858 households were assessed as qualified and being in need of social housing support. This represents a decrease of 19,7421 households or 22% over the period 2016 to 2018.
The targets for social housing provision set out in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness were developed to provide immediate, medium and long-term supports for households on local authority waiting lists. The Plan aims to deliver more than 50,000 built, acquired and leased homes over the 6 year period of the Plan. This ambition has been proportionately divided into local authority targets, directly reflecting the numbers on individual local authority lists. In addition, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) will continue to deliver flexible and immediate housing solutions to complement the build, acquisition and leasing programmes. Overall, more than 138,000 housing supports are anticipated over the lifetime of the Plan. This makes provision for the 91,600 households on the lists at the time the Plan was published and also anticipated additional need arising.
All available resources at national and local level have been mobilised to maximise the delivery of social housing as quickly and efficiently as possible. Local authority build programmes are an essential component of the 50,000 homes to be delivered over the lifetime of the Plan. In addition to local authorities building on their own land, this also includes partnerships with Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs). Annual delivery targets are issued to local authorities and delivery against these targets is published quarterly on my Department's website. The 2019 Social Housing targets are available at the following link:
http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/social-housing-targets-2019/.
My Department works closely with each individual local authority to provide the necessary funding and structures to enable them to deliver their minimum build targets, and where possible to exceed their targets and advance their pipelines for additional delivery in the coming years. Quarterly Construction Status Reports provide an overview of new build social housing completed and being advanced across the 31 local authorities. The latest report, reflecting the position at the end of 2018, is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website, at the following link:
http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-social-housing-construction-status-report-for-q4-2018/.
