-Housing Association Sector Launches its 2019 Social Housing Activity Report –
Wednesday 10th June 2020
Today, the Irish Council for Social Housing launches its Housing Association Activity Report 2019. Ireland’s housing association sector provided 4,127 new social rented homes in 2019, 41% of the total national delivery of social housing, and took almost 5,000 households off the social housing waiting list.
Dr. Donal McManus, ICSH Chief Executive stated:“Housing associations reached record delivery levels in 2019 with the highest ever number of homes for the sector. 10,007 social rented homes were built, purchased and leased in 2019 and housing associations delivered more than 40% of these. We’re confident that our member organisations have the capacity to further increase Ireland’s stock of permanent social housing over the coming years. However, in the face of a looming COVID-19 related recession, it is important that social and affordable housing delivery is prioritised in any economic stimulus measures put in place to protect the economy and accelerate the national recovery. Austerity measures have a lasting and damaging impact on housing delivery. In 2013 we delivered just 211 homes (5% of our 2019 output). We cannot repeat this mistake again”.
Housing associations (also known as approved housing bodies or ‘AHBs’) are professional not-for-profit organisations dedicated to the construction and management of affordable housing. Today’s figures demonstrate that AHBs have been delivering-on, and exceeding, housing association targets in Rebuilding Ireland. Rebuilding Ireland’s 2019 construction and acquisition target for our sector was 2,513 and we exceeded this by delivering 3778 new social homes. We’ve delivered almost 11,000 homes since Rebuilding Ireland was launched, and our sector’s current construction pipeline is a healthy 11,263 homes. Working in partnership with local authorities across Ireland, we expect to reach our 2021 target of 15,000 social homes, even with the slow-down caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ICSH is calling for major investment in social and affordable housing in the forthcoming programme for government and in response to an emerging recession. The ICSH is calling for a housing stability programme with ring-fenced funding to deliver 60,000 new social homes by AHBs and local authorities during the new Dáil term. We also need many more households to be able to access rental housing they can afford through an ambitious cost rental programme. And it is critical that all suitable state land is used for the delivery of social and affordable rental housing, with a ‘recast’ Land Development Agency working in partnership with AHBs.
“Working in partnership with local authorities, housing associations can help reshape our national housing programme into a valuable public asset that shelters and protects, providing a safe environment in which our population can flourish. Housing must be recognsied as a social good above all else, and we need our new Government to focus on achieving a fairer housing system for all”, Dr. McManus added.
AHB Activity in 2019
- 41% of new long-term social housing units were delivered by approved housing bodies in 2019.
- Almost 50% of all new build social homes were delivered by housing associations.
- Almost 11,000 homes have been delivered by AHBs under Rebuilding Ireland to date.
- Almost 40,000 social homes are currently managed by AHBs.
- 570 new supported housing homes were built in 2019 for special need groups, for older people and people with disabilities.
- 338 long-term homeless individuals were housed and supported under Housing First by the end of 2019.
- 196 Homes under Mortgage to Rent were completed in 2019 (660 Applications have been completed to date and 1,324 are in progress).
Measures to Boost Housing
- New Government to develop stability housing programme with recession-proof ring-fenced funding to deliver at least 60,000 new social homes.
- Part V commitment to up to 20%.
- Ambitious cost rental programmes to provide affordable rental homes on state land.
- Return AHBs to ‘off-balance sheet’ to enable sector to access greater private finance.
- Use all suitable state land for planned social and affordable rental housing pipeline.
- A new framework for supported housing in Ireland for older persons and people with disabilities
Overall Social Housing Output in 2019 (provided by both local authorities and housing associations/AHBs): 10,007. Of which AHB delivered 4,127 (41%).
| CAS | CALF | Leasing | Housing Agency | Part V | Total AHB output | Total Output AHB+LA | % AHB delivery | |
| Build | 142 | 2,032 | 737 | 2,911 | 6,074 | 47.9% | ||
| Acquisition | 428 | 247 | 192 | 867 | 2,772 | 31.3% | ||
| Leasing | 349 | 349 | 1,161 | 30.1% | ||||
| Total | 570 | 2,279 | 349 | 192 | 737 | 4,127 | 10,007 | 41.2% |
