Budget will force local authorities to build up to 9,000 new homes

It is estimated that 8,907 new builds will take place in 2021 with a further 800 homes being acquired and a further 2,450 being leased.

The Government will announce a plan on Budget Day to force local authorities to directly build up to 9,000 homes next year, it has emerged.

The number of newly built homes under the Rebuilding Ireland plan is starting from a very low base of just 2,000 in 2016. Fianna Fáil’s Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath want to move away from so-called turn-key acquisitions and prioritise councils building their own homes for social and affordable use.