Plan aims to provide 50,000 social houses by 2021

Details about the provision of almost 50,000 new social houses and apartments, as well as funding for the refurbishment of 750 additional vacant council houses this year, are due to be announced today.

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney will give a breakdown of how the homes are to be provided between now and 2021 as part of his action plan on housing and homelessness, Rebuilding Ireland.

Over the next five years, 26,036 social houses and apartments will be built, 10,928 will be acquired and 10,036 will be leased.

In addition, an extra €13.2 million is to be made available to local authorities this year, targeting the refurbishment of an extra 750 vacant council houses known as “voids”. These will be in addition to the 1,250 already announced for this year, bringing the total to 2,000 by December.

When you add in the 2,333 “voids” refurbished in 2014 and 2,696 last year, that means 7,029 local authority “voids” will have been brought back into use since the “vacant properties” programme began in January 2014.

Vacancy rate

A spokesman for the Department of Housing said once these additional “voids” are refurbished there will be fewer voids “than there have been in many, many years”. The vacancy rate for social housing is now down to 1 per cent in some parts of the State.

The Minister will make the announcements at an event today where greater detail will be given on the social housing element of Rebuilding Ireland. It will be the second detailed briefing on the plan, focusing on its pillar 2, entitled "Accelerate Social Housing".

This year, 4,240 units of social housing will be delivered, the Minister will say.

This figure will increase over the course of the plan, to 5,050 next year, 7,869 in 2017 and reach 10,950 units in 2021.

The numbers directly built by local authorities or approved housing bodies (AHB) will also increase over the term of the plan, from 2,260 this year to 6,240 in 2021.

More detail

Stakeholders, including housing charities and local authorities, will be keen to hear more detail on what proportion of the new units will be built, respectively, by local authorities, AHBs and private developers as part of their “Part V” obligations, and how many will be refurbished “voids” from existing stock.

They will also be interested in whether the units to be acquired include the already-announced 1,600 units to be acquired by the Housing Agency.

The additional funding for "voids" comes on top of €26.3 million spent by local authorities on refurbishments last year. The biggest spender on "voids" last year was Dublin City Council, which refurbished 787 at a cost of €6.1 million.

It was critical, said Mr Coveney last night, that local authorities used the housing stock they had as efficiently as possible.

“Apart from the obvious advantages of providing much-needed housing, the return of these vacant units provides a positive impact on the community, reducing the likelihood of anti-social behaviour that vacant units attract.”