Government missed its social housing targets again in 2024
The Irish Government has missed its social housing targets again.
It comes months after it was confirmed that it had missed its overall housing target of 33,300 after promising the delivery of 40,000 new homes in 2024 during the general election.
Housing for All, the Government's housing 'blueprint,' breaks down the number of privately owned, social, affordable and cost-rental housing units that should be built in any given year to meet their targets.
James Browne's Department of Housing published the social and affordable housing delivery statistics for 2024 on Wednesday morning.
It stated that 10,595 social homes were added to the social housing stock in 2024.
This included 7,871 new-build homes, 1,501 acquisitions and 1,223 homes through leasing programmes.
The target for social and affordable housing in 2024 was 12,930 homes.
It was anticipated that 9,300 homes would be built, 1,500 homes would be acquired and 2,130 homes would be leased. The only target met was the acquisition target.
The building target was missed by 1,429 homes (15 per cent), while some 907 fewer homes (43%) than expected were leased.
The Department of Housing stated that, when the Housing Assistance Payment (8,121 payments) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (1,576 payments) are included, '20,292 housing supports were delivered across 2024.'
However, these schemes were also below target. The target for 2024 was to create 8,800 HAP and 1,600 RAS tenancies.
However, the government exceeded its target of 6,400 affordable and cost-rental housing. Some 7,126 homes were created in 2024.
However, this included 2,851 instances where first-time buyers availed of the First Home 'bridge the gap' scheme. This gives the Government or local authorities an equity stake when first-time buyers buy privately built new build homes.
Another 1,349 people availed of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant and were also included in the 'affordable purchase' statistics.
Just 779 affordable homes were actually built and available to buy.
Some 2,147 cost-rental tenancies were also created.
Minister Browne said that he 'acknowledged that the number of newly built social homes was below target for 2024 and that he would expect each local authority to do everything possible to meet their targets for 2025'.
He also confirmed that he will now publish quarterly performance reports to ' clearly outline how each local authority is delivering on individual targets for new-build social housing'.
Minister Browne said: 'To drive home a renewed urgency in delivering social housing, I will be meeting with the chief executives of all 31 local authorities to discuss their targets and plans to bring forward projects on their own land. 'Reaching our overall annual targets is dependent on each local authority meeting their target and we cannot afford for any individual local authority to fall behind.'
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