Cork City Social Housing: 'We have vastly increased the housing supply in the city'

Cork City Council’s second-in-command defends the council’s housing record and suggests changes to the way it delivers maintenance, and why a rent increase may be on the way for some of its thousands of social housing tenants

Brian Geaney, assistant chief executive of Cork City Council, with Cllr Ted Tynan, on the Middle Glanmire Road building site in 2021 during the construction of 54 townhouses, 27 of which were to become affordable housing for Cork City Council. Picture: Darragh Kane

Cork City Council has almost 12,000 social housing units, and nearly 11,000 active tenancies. Last year, its housing budget was just over €147m, with €21m of that going on housing maintenance.

Defending the council’s record on maintenance of an ageing housing stock might seem a tall order to some, but — while accepting more needs to be done — it’s a task assistant chief executive Brian Geaney does with obvious sincerity.

In the council chamber, Mr Geaney is popular and respected across the political spectrum, while in central Government he is seen as a safe pair of hands when it comes to delivering large-scale projects.

Brian Geaney: 'There are right now more than 3,000 social and affordable housing units under construction in Cork City'

Political sources say he has been impressive in delivering thousands of homes in Cork, with more than 3,000 social and affordable homes currently under construction.

There was some relief in politics and in the Construction Industry Federation when he was announced last year as chair of the project development board to sort out the decade-old events centre shambles.

It is known that in his view previous efforts to deliver the events centre were less than effective, and he alluded to that at a recent joint Oireachtas committee meeting. Cynics might caution it’s not sorted yet, but he says good progress is being made.

Appointed programme manager of housing delivery in 2016, he became director of housing the following year. He became assistant chief executive in 2020, holding onto responsibility for housing.

He made the point that in 2014, the year he said the housing crisis was formally identified, Cork City Council built precisely one house, in The Meadows in Knocknacullen, in Hollyhill.

It shows you the level from which we needed to come, one house — little or nothing — so when I came into the job, I set about a strategy of vastly increasing housing supply. Primarily we used the traditional method of public works contract, through our own architect’s department.

“From 2016 onward, we have vastly increased the housing supply in the city, and developed partnerships in particular with approved housing bodies [AHBs] and more lately with the LDA [Land Development Agency], and that has delivered brilliant results for the city.

“There are right now more than 3,000 social and affordable housing units under construction in Cork City, and I would be the key public official who would be involved in working with those various agencies, directing our own programme and liaising with both the AHBs and the LDA.” 

Although accepting more needs to be done, he said housing provision in Cork was in a vastly improved place, which has not happened by accident, and which he credited to the council’s housing staff members, whom he described as “flat to the floor”.

Maintaining older flat complexes

Asked about the council’s often dismal record in maintaining some of its older flat complexes, he said action was being taken to address that.

“We have met with the local area committee members, and we’ve undertaken to do surveys on each individual unit, and I expect that very quickly we will be responding on a daily basis to housing maintenance requests and dealing with rodents.

However, we must acknowledge how the rodents end up coming there, and at times it’s illegal dumping in the area that’s attracting rodents, but we will be going to local area representatives fairly quickly in terms of what we think is the future of some of those flat complexes.

“For instance, in Noonan’s Rd we have a situation where we have already carried out a report and we saw those flats were not capable of being regenerated, and so we decided then to decant those units — there is over 80% of the people there now decanted into alternative accommodation.” 

Shuttered houses on Kilmore Rd. Picture: Donal O'Keeffe

Asked whether Cork City Council had enough money to maintain its ageing stock of social housing, Mr Geaney quipped no local authority would ever say it had enough money.

“I’m deeply conscious that while we would have a very good record of providing new units, the maintenance of existing units is our next big challenge, and we have to do something more immediate in some of our stock.

“What I would hope is that we will get the investment needed, and yes, some of that would come from the Department of Housing, but also, we have to look at how we might finance that ourselves.

“But what we would be looking to do is to have a substantial programme and roll it out in a number of areas in the city, and obviously we will be talking to our own local elected members about how we would hope to do that going forward.

“But yes, it will need substantial investment.” 

Rent review

Asked whether a rent review — meaning for most tenants a rent increase — was in prospect, he said: “The likely proposed changes to how the maintenance service is delivered may result in increased rents, but any likely increase will be very cognisant of the most vulnerable tenants and will be poverty proofed”.

Asked about dire conditions in some council homes in Killala Gardens and Kilmore Rd, which are in the final phase of the Knocknaheeny regeneration and not likely to be cleared for five years, he said the council was hoping to accelerate the relocation of tenants.

“In the meantime, we will continue to provide response maintenance in Killala Gardens and Kilmore Rd, but from a maintenance perspective — we can’t waste money on upgrading stock that we know will be demolished in the next couple of years."

Shuttered houses at Killala Gardens. Picture: Donal O'Keeffe

Asked about claims by residents the area is “overrun” with rats, he repeated his observation that illegal dumping draws rodents.

“I’m not saying it’s the residents who are doing the illegal dumping in the area, and we will try to assist the community in that regard.” 

The council has a good record with regeneration in The Glen and Togher, and parts of Mayfield, he said, but he acknowledged “there are flat complexes around the city, pockets of the city where we have older stock that needs to be replaced or refurbished”.

He has initiated a review by consultants EY looking at the future management and maintenance arrangements for Cork, with its recommendations due shortly.

“We have to be innovative, as we have been in the past, in terms of housing provision, we have to be innovative in terms of future-proofing our stock going forward,” he said.

“From a housing maintenance perspective, yes, we have people that work very hard in that area, it’s a difficult area given the age of the stock, but we now have to determine the best way of delivering services going forward.

“But certainly, I would totally accept that there are a number of residents of Cork City Council homes that are unhappy with the current level of maintenance, and that’s down to a number of factors, notwithstanding the age of the stock, and we have to look at the best way of delivering service going forward.”

• This special report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme