Housing for All, has now entered its fourth year of implementation. Under the Plan, the Government is aiming to deliver an average of at least 33,000 new homes annually, including an average of 10,000 social homes and 6,000 affordable homes for purchase or for rent. 2024 will see over €5bn of capital investment in housing. This funding will ensure the Government can continue to build on the momentum achieved since the publication of the Plan in September 2021.
Under Housing for All, each local authority was required to prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan. This Plan sets out details of both social and affordable housing delivery as appropriate over the period 2022-2026, in line with targets set under Housing for All. In preparing the Plans, local authorities were required to include details of land available to deliver housing. The Plans also include details of the locations and delivery streams for social housing schemes. The Plans have been published on the local authorities' respective websites.
My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social and affordable housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority, including Part V delivery. This data is available to the end of Quarter 4 2023 and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/6d316-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/?referrer=http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics.
In this regard, close to 12,000 new social homes were delivered in 2023, a 16% increase on 2022, representing the highest level of social housing delivery in decades. In addition, over 4,000 affordable housing options were delivered in respect of both affordable purchase and cost rental homes via local authorities, AHBs, the Land Development Agency (LDA), the First Home Scheme and through the new Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant. This represents an increase of 128% on 2022 activity, and highlights the significant progress achieved to date under Housing for All in relation to affordable housing delivery. This momentum will continue in 2024, with a strong pipeline in place.
While my Department does not hold details on the various construction processes used in the delivery of new homes, the first Housing for All Action Plan Update, (November 2022), included a new action to develop a roadmap with targets for increased use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in Public Housing. This Roadmap was published on 11 July 2023 and is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/414cd-roadmap-for-increased-adoption-of-mmc-in-public-housing-delivery/.
My Department is now working closely with the local authorities to increase the use of MMC in social and affordable housing. The development of MMC will improve productivity in construction and increase efficiency in residential construction. MMC covers a range of manufacturing and innovative construction alternatives to traditional construction, including modular construction. MMC has the potential to boost productivity, increase efficiency and improve sustainability in the construction sector. MMC techniques can speed up the delivery of construction projects by between 20% and 60%, has been identified as a key measure to address the different housing needs in Ireland.
The coordination of activities to promote MMC adoption is being led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE), through the inter-departmental MMC Leadership and Integration Group (established July 2022). This Group ensures the integration and co-ordination of the various Government-supported MMC initiatives – to support innovation in the construction industry.
Such initiatives include:
• The social housing Accelerated Delivery Programme which uses MMC;
• Publication of the aforementioned Roadmap for increased adoption of MMC in Public Housing Delivery;
• The Construct Innovate Technology Centre;
• The National Demonstration Park for MMC;
• The National Construction Training Centre;
• Training for industry, procurers and Building Control in MMC; and
• The establishment of the Timber in Construction Working Group, which, bringing together a range of industry expertise, will be tasked with examining conditions to increase the use of timber in construction.
