‘Lack of sites is biggest barrier to building social housing’

A lack of sites for development is the most significant barrier to building more social housing.

The Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) claims there are hundreds of sites in public ownership countrywide that could be assessed and transferred from local authorities to housing associations that could access private finance to construct social housing.

Speaking at its annual general meeting, ICSH chief executive Donal McManus said three issues need to be addressed:

• Lack of sites for development;
• Urgent need for co-ordination of funding schemes for social housing;
• The absence of development programmes for housing associations.

“The most serious obstacle hampering implementation of the social housing strategy is the lack of a significant level of sites being made available to housing associations,” said Mr McManus.

“There are over 800 sites in public ownership that could be assessed for social housing and transferred from local authorities to housing associations. Housing associations could then access private finance to deliver much-needed homes. However, this is not happening due to unnecessary infrastructural obstacles and delays.”

Mr McManus said “immediate action” is required to allow housing associations play their part in meeting the targets set out in the Government’s social housing strategy.

“We are proposing an operational land-supply programme to assemble suitable sites for social housing, including from State sources such as the land aggregation schemes and Nama,” he said.

“In addition, we would like to see inventories of State lands from public bodies, as well as plans detailing how these will be used to provide social housing.”

The ICSH is also calling for the creation of a central unit in the Department of the Environment to assist with better co-ordination for housing associations.

Mr McManus said: “Previously, when our sector was asked to increase its scale under the National Development Plan, a central unit was established in the Department of the Environment to facilitate this — and this worked well.

“This has now been disbanded, leaving housing associations with no central coordination and work falling across different units and three departmental locations.”

The ICSH acknowledged the significant work being done by non-profit housing associations in response to the demand for social housing and increased levels of homelessness.

“Our members nationwide are developing innovative delivery solutions and increasing capacity across the sector in response to the current housing crisis. The social housing strategy underpins their work, and that is why we need to ensure any obstacles to its implementation are removed,” said Mr McManus.

Housing associations provided over 1,500 homes for families on housing waiting lists last year, and responded to the need for additional homes by accessing up to €50m of private finance.

The ICSH recently undertook a survey of members which indicated a further 3,232 homes could be delivered by 2017.

Mr McManus emphasised the organisation’s desire to continue to work in partnership with local authorities to find shared solutions to people’s housing needs.