Kelly outlines €1.5 billion plan for social housing

Local authorities that achieve their targets set out in a €1.5 billion social housing plan designed to reduce the housing waiting lists by a quarter will be rewarded, according to Minster for the Environment Alan Kelly.

This will see local authorities that meet their targets given additional resources and those that do not surrendering some of their allocation.

Details of the social housing targets for local authorities to 2017 were unveiled in Limerick on Wednesday.

Over €1.5 billion is to be spent on a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes by local authorities designed to accommodate 25 per cent of the 90,000 households currently on housing waiting lists for social housing.

The combined funding total for the Dublin local authorities comes to over €500 million for the construction or refurbishment of 6,849 new units.

The Dublin local authorities have been allocated housing targets above what they proposed to the Department of Environment to ensure strong delivery where the housing need is greatest.

Among the other large local authorities receiving significant sums of money are Cork City and County Councils who have been allocated over€204 million and Kildare County Council which is to receive just over €86 million.

The local authority allocated the lowest funding is Leitrim County Council with €4.4 million. However this sum should reduce the housing waiting list by almost 50 per cent.

Roscommon County Council is receiving €5.5 million with an expected reduction of 60 per cent in the housing list numbers.

Approximately 300 separate building proposals by local authorities are currently being assessed by the department and will be announced in a number of phases starting in mid April.

Construction is already underway for social housing in approximately 33 sites throughout the country.

Speaking during a visit to a social housing development site on Lord Edward St in Limerick city, where 83 units are being constructed, Mr Kelly said there was no political bias in the allocation of local authority funding and insisted all decisions were based on need.

“We went out to all local authorities and we asked them to submit their plans. There is a key demand in Dublin and a large tranche of this funding is going towards Dublin,” he explained.

Mr Kelly said other areas with more demand include Laois County Council which has a commuting distance to Dublin and where €31 million has been allocated for the construction or refurbishment of 366 new units.

Limerick City and County Council is to receive over €57 million to spend on 753 new units.

This work will be separate to the ongoing Regeneration programme, and is expected to reduce the housing waiting list by 27 per cent in Limerick.

“What we are doing is we are giving every local authority a chance to show what they can deliver and I fully intend on rewarding local authorities that can deliver quickly and on time and within budget,” said Mr Kelly.

“I think particularly those who have high demand areas, we should allow those to go even further and it will my intention to ensure that happens.....I expect from my engagement with all the local authorities who have key demands that they will be the ones that will deliver the most,” he added.

Mr Kelly expects the programme to be completely finished by 2017 and said there is a strong possibility that more projects will be announced as local authorities are “ramped up” on planning resources and design.

“I think the privatisation of local authority housing was a mistake that went on for a decade. But now we have now turned that ship around and this is s very positive announcement,” he added.

The average cost of building a social housing unit is €185,000 - meaning in some parts of the country it will remain cheaper and quicker to acquire as opposed to build.

Today’s announcement comes as part of the government’s €3.8billion social housing strategy announced last November to 2020.

If all local authorities achieve their targets they will be able to access this funding source to finance additional projects.

Each local authority was asked to bring forward housing unit targets and specific building projects out to 2017.

Local authorities will have some discretion to adapt to local circumstances but all will be expected to kick start a building programme.