Local authorities built just 142 houses last year

Just 142 new houses were built by the country’s 31 local authorities last year amid a growing housing and homelessness crisis, according to new official figures.

A total of 16,357 new social housing units were provided by city and county councils last year up from 9,081 in 2015. Unlike previous years the 2016 figures also include units under various schemes such as the Housing Assistant Payment programme which were provided by voluntary housing associations and co-operatives.

The further expansion of Housing Assistant Payments last year accounted for the vast majority of new social housing units — over 12,000.

Local authorities directly provided 1,769 new dwellings, of which 1,647 were bought on the open market.

The figures are contained in a new report by the National Oversight and Audit Commission — a body established to provide independent scrutiny of the performance of local authorities.

It shows the country’s social housing stock stood at 174,482 units at the end of 2016 — an increase of 10% due largely to the inclusion of homes supported by the Housing Assistant Payment scheme.

Under the Government’s action plans for housing and homelessness, Rebuilding Ireland, it has promised to deliver 47,000 units by 2021 at a cost of €5.35bn. However, critics have complained that the reliance on Housing Assistant Payment means comparatively few new social housing units are being constructed.

Fourteen councils built no new housing units last year including Cork County, Galway City, Galway County, Meath and Wicklow.

A total of 40 new houses were constructed by Dublin City Council which provided 1,513 housing units in 2016. Over 1,000 units were also provided by Cork City, Cork County, Donegal, South Dublin and Tipperary.

Wicklow supplied the fewest number of new homes last year — adding 53 units to its housing stock.

The commission welcomed the drop in the overall vacancy rate of local authority housing last year which fell to 3% — down from 3.5% in 2015. Nevertheless, almost 4,000 council homes had no tenants at the end of 2016.

The vacancy rate ranged from 0.5% in south Dublin to over 8% in Leitrim.

The commission report also reveals that there was a sharp fall in the number of inspections of private rental accommodation carried out by housing officials last year — down 22%. Over 311,000 tenancies were registered by landlords in 2016.

However, only one in 25 of all rental units were subject to an inspection to ensure compliance with housing regulations and rental accommodation standards.

The commission figures show 13,603 inspections were carried out in 2016 compared to 17,410 in 2015, despite more than 2,500 extra tenancies being registered.

Three quarters of all private rental accommodation units inspected last year — more than 10,200 homes — were found to be non-compliant.