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Social Housing – A New Dawn?

The recently published draft Programme for Government places significant emphasis on the delivery of housing as part of the next Government’s life cycle. Our Construction, Infrastructure & Utilities team summarises some of the key social housing provisions and measures proposed as part of the programme.


What you need to know

  • The draft Programme for Government has set an ambitious target of delivering 300,000 new homes by 2030, with 12,000 new social housing units to be constructed each year
  • The Government had aimed to deliver 40,000 new homes by the end of 2024
  • The Programme for Government would require a significant increase in delivered units to meet this target

Housing was a key issue in last year’s general election. The draft Programme for Government recognises the importance of this issue and has targeted the delivery of 300,000 new homes, including 12,000 social houses annually, by the end of 2030. To achieve this target, the State will have to deliver houses at a scale and speed far greater than it has managed to date. We examine some of the headline measures proposed to achieve this goal with a focus on how they may impact social housing, in particular.

Accelerating delivery

The Programme acknowledges that delays and red tape are a major issue in delivery of housing. As a result, the Programme has committed to:

  • Implementing the Planning and Development Act 2024
  • Enacting a new Compulsory Purchase Order Bill with the aim of streamlining and strengthening the ability of the state to acquire under-utilised land for home building
  • Requiring all local authorities to facilitate a pre-planning meeting for every new significant development above a set threshold
  • Introducing statutory timelines for wastewater and energy connection agreements to ensure large developments are not delayed
  • Establishing a new procedure for developments in excess of 100 units where a developer can meet with the local authority and Uisce Éireann on site to address and troubleshoot any issues at the pre-planning stage
  • Integrating the existing Housing Delivery Groups into a new Strategic Housing & Infrastructure Delivery Office under the Minister for Housing. The measure aims to accelerate home building by unblocking infrastructure delays, and
  • Introducing a single-stage approval process for all standardised social housing and affordable projects

Increasing capacity

The Programme notes that approximately €24 billion is required per annum to build 60,000 homes annually until 2030. The programme commits to:

  • Developing new financing sources for brownfield sites and small builders with support from domestic banks, Home Building Finance Ireland, the Housing Finance Agency and state support, through equity investments
  • Introducing cost rental backstops to allow local authorities and the LDA to reduce financial risk, and
  • Expanding the role of credit unions in the delivery of housing

To address the resource shortage, the programme is targeting 12,500 new apprentices annually by 2030 with two thirds of these apprentices in craft and construction. The Programme also commits to increasing permits for residential construction workers and an overseas recruitment drive.

Innovation in housing

The Programme plans to promote Modern Methods of Construction, also referred to as MMC. It also aims to set binding targets for MMC use in at least 25% of all State-backed housing. The Government further proposes to promote the use of timber in new buildings and ensure multi-storey timber frame residential developments can be delivered.

The Programme looks to introduce a new voids programme to improve the turnaround of vacant social housing units. It will also require local authorities to provide tenant names to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) before project completion in order to facilitate quicker occupation of units.

The Programme proposes reformed delivery models to achieve targets, including a restriction on local authorities and AHBs acquiring bulk-purchase developments post-completion. Although it provides no additional detail on these reformed models, there is an indication that this will lead to a greater emphasis on forward-funding or self-build developments for local authorities and AHBs.

Comment

Given that it was expected that 40,000 new homes would be built in 2024, the draft Programme for Government sets an ambitious target for new homes. The Government has set out overarching points as to how these targets can be achieved, but as always the devil will be in the detail of the specific policy measures implemented to drive these targets.

For more information and guidance on the impact of the draft Programme on any anticipated projects, contact a member of our Construction, Infrastructure & Utilities team.

The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.



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