Minister demands acceleration on social building programme

Galway’s two local authority chiefs have been told to accelerate the delivery of social housing in the county and city.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has written to Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive of Galway County Council, and Brendan McGrath, Chief Executive of Galway City Council demanding that the drive for more social housing units “intensifies in the coming months”.

Minister Murphy has also published “detailed minimum social housing targets” for both local authorities requiring them to deliver around 1,000 new social housing units in Galway this year.

The Minister’s target for Galway County Council is to deliver 532 new social housing in 2018. This includes 64 new builds, 14 through acquisition, and 40 through leasing agreements. The remaining 414 are to be delivered through Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and Housing Assistance Payments (HAP).

The Minister’s target for Galway City Council is to deliver 399 new social housing in 2018. This includes 96 new builds, 14 through question, and 35 through leasing. The remaining 254 are to be delivered through HAP and RAS.

The targets for new builds – 64 in the county and 96 in the city – does not necessarily mean the two local authorities will be building that amount of social housing units.

Those targets are likely to be met through the Part V planning law whereby a certain percentage of units in new private housing estates is reserved for social and affordable homes. Bringing homes that have been unoccupied for a long time or ‘voids’, back into use, will also be a way of meeting the ‘build’ target.

Minister Murphy told both local authority chiefs in Galway that the “shift in focus from acquisition to build delivery is intended to accelerate in 2018”.

In his letters to Mr Kelly and Mr McGrath, Minister Murphy said: “As the programmes across all delivery streams intensify, I am requesting that as Chief Executive, you ensure that your local authority has appropriate oversight and project management systems in place to keep projects on track. It is absolutely critical that the delivery pipeline that is in place for 2018, is delivered in 2018. Delivery teams in my Department, including the Housing Delivery Office, will work in partnership with local authorities to assist with accelerated delivery, and to source and drive additional opportunities where appropriate.”

The targets for 2018-2021 are 1,089 for the County Council and 926 for the City Council, through a range of delivery options.

Ciaran Cannon, Junior Minister for Diaspora and International Development said Galway will benefit from the “significant progress made to date” in advancing the construction pipeline, as well as social housing delivery targets for local authorities for the next three years.

The Galway East TD added: “In 2017 we saw 1,332 social housing solutions delivered across Galway city and county. This includes 1,077 delivered through the HAP and RAS and 255 houses built, acquired and leased by the local authorities. One of the key outcomes of the second Housing Summit with local authority Chief Executives held earlier this year was a commitment to drive greater transparency and accountability at individual local authority level on the delivery of the targets under Rebuilding Ireland.

“In the latter part of 2017, Minister Murphy secured significant additional funding to increase the overall level of ambition under Rebuilding Ireland in the period to 2021, and also signaled a rebalancing of the strands of delivery towards construction projects.

“Overall, the Government has now committed €6 billion to support the accelerated delivery of 50,000 additional social housing homes by end 2021, through build (33,500), acquisition (6,500) and leasing (10,000) programmes.”