Govt accused of failing to do enough on social housing

The housing charity Threshold has accused the Government of doing little to help the tens of thousands of people on local authority housing lists throughout the country.

Yesterday, Junior Housing Minister Noel Ahern announced that the numbers waiting for housing had fallen by around 5,000 to under 45,000 over the past three years.

Environment Minister Dick Roche also announced details of a €4bn spending plan for social and affordable housing over the next years.

However, Threshold spokesperson Aideen Hayden said the decrease in the waiting list amounted to less than 3% per annum.

"There are still 43,600 households on the housing waiting list with no immediate prospect of being housed," she said.