Social and affordable home building targets missed

Department of Housing figures show 7,871 new-build social homes were constructed in 2024 — 1,429 fewer than the target the Government had pledged in its housing for all plan. Picture: iStock

The Government has not only missed its 2024 social and affordable housing targets but delivered fewer homes than in 2023.

It is the first time social and affordable housing delivery has gone backwards.

Figures published on Wednesday by the Department of Housing show there were 7,871 new-build social homes constructed in 2024.

That is 1,429 below the target of 9,300 new builds the Government had pledged in its housing for all plan.

The figure for 2024 also falls short of the 8,110 new-build social homes delivered in 2023.

In total, across new builds, acquisitions, and leasing, there were 10,595 social houses delivered in 2024.

This is behind the 12,930 government target.

James Browne, the housing minister, acknowledged the shortfall, but said the downturn has not been “as pronounced as may have been feared” given the fall-off in private housing delivery.

“It is clear, however, that to ensure the sustainability and scalability of the pipeline, we need to do our best to insulate the supply of social housing from any volatility in private supply. The best way to do this is to have local authorities delivering new-build homes on local authority land,” he said.

Mr Browne said he would be meeting with all local authority chief executives to “drive home a renewed urgency in delivering social housing”.

“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,” he said.

Mr Browne said he would start publishing social housing delivery by councils, which would be set against their individual targets.

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the Government will never meet its targets for social housing unless it increases funding and “cuts through all the red tape and bureaucracy imposed by local authorities and approved housing bodies”.

Mr Ó Broin said an extra €140m has been allocated for social and affordable housing for 2025, but this will not increase delivery given construction inflation.

Ber Grogan, the executive director of Simon Communities of Ireland, said she was “beyond disappointed” to see the Government miss their social housing targets.

She said that, during the general election, the Simon Communities had called for 15,000 social houses to be built each year from 2026.

“We are nowhere near that necessary target,” said Ms Grogan.

Labour housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan said it is “extremely concerning” that the Government has not yet unveiled its revised social housing targets for 2025.

He warned that the failure to meet targets will only add to the existing housing shortfall, adding there must now be “radical action” from Government.

Meanwhile, the Government has been accused of misleading the public on its affordable housing delivery figures. In a press release issued on Wednesday, a number of metrics — including grants paid for refurbishing vacant properties — were used to outline how the Government had exceeded its affordable housing delivery targets.

The opposition has argued some of these metrics are not included as affordable housing delivery options within housing for all, meaning the Government did not meet its target.

In the release, the first home scheme is said to have delivered 2,851 affordable purchases in 2024. However, these are only approvals for the scheme in 2024 — with previous information published by the department outlining only 1,797 houses were purchased through the scheme last year. The total of affordable new builds, including first home, was 4,603. the housing for all scheme had set a target of 6,400.

Mr Ó Broin said the Government’s presentation of affordable housing figures is “deliberately misleading”, and is designed to conceal the level at which targets were missed.