This year’s ICSH Finance and Development Conference 2024. Achieving our Ambitions – Social and Affordable Housing Delivery for the Next Decade, was held on 16th & 17th October 2024 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Sligo. The event took place at an inflection point in the social housing sector’s development. Output has increased at a significant rate in recent years and approved housing bodies and local authorities have been tasked to deliver even greater levels of social and affordable housing. With the backdrop of the Report of the Housing Commission, the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) Strategic Review of the AHB Sector and numerous expert analyses highlighting the stark figures of housing output needed over the coming years, this is a point at which the sector can take stock of what has been achieved to date and reflect on what concrete actions are needed to achieve this ambition.
The conference gained some great coverage on RTÉ, both online Significant increase in social homes over 10 years – ICSH and on the Six One news http://my.tvey.es/d7DPy. The Sligo Champion attended the conference and published a great piece here. Plans to build 500 social housing homes in Sligo in the next five years.
The conference programme is available to download here ICSH Finance and Development Conference 2024 programme.
This year (following on from our approach in 2023), we moved away from PowerPoint driven presentations, focusing instead on speakers’ personal inputs and vibrant panel and QandA interaction during each session (with excellent use of using Slido by the 350 delegates attending). Some speaker presentation are available below.
Opening Address by ICSH President, Tina Donaghy
Tina thanked the conference sponsors and delegates, noting the history of the conference beginning with 50 or so delegates who were seeking new financial models of delivery. She flagged the Inter-dependence of all stakeholders and acknowledged the growth of social housing delivery and everyone attending who are playing their part, with 50/50 public housing delivery by local authorities and AHBs.
New Landscape for Delivery
- John O’Connor, Chair, Housing Commission
- Report of The Housing Commission
- Click here for a link to documents relating to Report of The Housing Commission
As the political landscape for social housing delivery evolves and shifts, this session brought together experts on recent key developments to discuss their impact. New Landscape for Delivery was chaired by Fiona O’Driscoll, ICSH Financial Lead.
Conor O’Toole (Associate Research Professor, ESRI) spoke about inflationary pressures easing and the need to increase productivity without driving this higher. He said the Exchequer was facing no financing constraints. A multitude of studies point to 50-70k homes needed per annum. But 33k units were delivered last year. With new family formation, there is pent up demand. But how to double this output with an economy at full capacity? Making structural changes around productivity in construction sector and fundamentally reforming planning system. There are structural affordability issues for population on bottom 40% of income.
John O’Connor (Chair, Housing Commission) flagged that the first report into housing needs in Dublin was in 1914. The Housing Commission report looks at housing needs and how we create a more affordable and sustainable housing system. The report is a recipe, not a menu. All elements are needed to create a more sustainable housing system. Housing is a national priority and needs absolute focus. Social and cost rental stock are currently at 9% but needs to be 20%. We will need 20-30 years to get there but it needs to increase. Rents should be cost recovery. We need to build up resources within the sector and make it stable. We haven’t been good at revolving funds but these will be needed to increase capacity. We’re too focused on grants, but revolving funds are better for what is required.
Vincent Colgan (Principal Officer, Department of Housing,Local Government & Heritage) congratulated the sector for what it has achieved. There is unanimous cross-party political support for the sector and removing legislative impediments to the sector is achieving more. There is more consultation, workshops, submissions. He said there has been broad housing system change beyond the AHB sector, reflecting much of what is in the Housing Commission report. And there has been AHB sector and policy reform also. What’s happening next? There’s the research report at end of the month, compiling all issues and reconvening the AHB forum group, ICSH, the Housing Alliance and validating what is recommended.
Scaling Up Within the New Landscape
- Eimear O’Hagan, Head of Housing & Property Management, HAIL
- Sharon Cosgrove, CEO, Oaklee Housing
- James Benson, Director for Strategic Delivery & Policy, Cairn Homes
Introducing the International Social Housing Festival – Dublin 2025
- Eoin Carroll, Director of Corporate Services, Co-operative Housing Ireland
- Information on ISHF 4-6 June 2025 Dublin, Ireland is available here
- Register your interest in ISHF here.
Capacity, Collaboration and Innovation
- Brian Hayes, Partner, Moore Ireland
- Turlough O’Brien, CEO, Tinteán, Carlow Voluntary Housing Association
Resource Planning and Organisational Development in a Growth Period
Meeting Cost Rental and Affordable Housing Demand
- Enda McGuane, Head of Asset Management, Land Development Agency
- Keith Jones, Senior Engineer, Cork County Council
Embedding Social and Environmental Best Practice Into Development
- Aideen O’Hora, Partner and Co-Founder, Sustainability Works
- Kate Joyce, Head of Sustainability and Strategic Projects, Tuath Housing
- Susan Vickers, Head of Environmental Sustainability, Clúid Housing
- Johanna Varghese, Programme Manager, Irish Green Building Council
Future Funding Solutions
Safeguarding Communities Over Commodities
- Helen Shaw, MSC Climate Change, climate resilient housing researcher/writer and in-coming writer in residence 2025 at Data Stories Project, Maynooth University
- Neil Bolton, Director of Housing, Respond
- Aidan O’Reilly, Principal Officer, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Conference information
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