We welcome the commitment from the government today in Budget 2027 to social and affordable housing delivery, including €3.016 billion in capital investment to support the delivery of 11,250 new social homes and €1.01 billion to the Starter Homes Programme, which includes cost rental delivery. We have a whole of government focus on housing, but to meet the growing need for homes the funding mechanisms must make it happen.
AHBs have the ability to increase delivery of social and cost rental homes but the way these homes are financed must keep pace to ensure any viability concerns are addressed as construction, financing and other development costs rise.
There are at least 25,000 social housing units in the AHB construction pipeline, which highlights how essential streamlined funding is to deliver these homes. However, the funding models must reflect the realities of construction-led delivery in Ireland today. We need to factor in the impact of inflation, interest rates, land acquisition and mixed-tenure developments.
In relation to cost rental, the sector has continued to deliver over 3,500 cost rental homes and has a strong pipeline. We are confident that our current delivery levels can keep up but we are also aware that delivering 1,500 cost rental homes in the years to 2030 will be challenging, due to rising costs. The AHBs main funding mechanism – CREL – has been tweaked over the last few years and we need to maintain agility in the funding model so that delivery of cost rental homes continues at pace.
The €654m allocation to SEAI is welcome. The maintenance of current AHB housing stock is as important as building new homes to ensure these homes stay fit for purpose. AHBs are already retrofitting homes at scale, but the Government must provide certainty around the funding available. A dedicated multiannual retrofit funding from the Social Climate Fund from 2027 onwards would allow AHBs to plan major retrofit programmes with confidence. We also note the welcome increase to the fuel allowance. However, a targeted emergency energy payment for low income households, in particular households dependent on oil heating with highly volatile pricing would benefit AHB households at risk of fuel poverty. And these same households are those we must prioritised for the renewable energy transition.
With our members the ICSH will review the Budget when the detail becomes clearer, and we look forward to seeing how the funding map unfolds.
