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LAST UPDATE | 23 Apr
THE GOVERNMENT HAS fallen short of its social housing target for 2024, prompting the housing minister to call on local authorities to “do everything possible” to meet their targets this year.
New figures released today show there were 7,126 affordable homes and 10,585 social homes delivered in 2024. Around 7,800 of the social homes were new-builds.
The government met its target for affordable housing but its social housing delivery fell short of its goal of 12,930. It means that the delivery of social homes was just over 18% below the target.
At the same time, as of November 2024, 59,941 households were assessed as being qualified for and in need of social housing support.
It marks an increase of 1,117 (1.9%) year-on-year.
Minister for Housing James Browne has said that he would expect local authorities to take action to meet their targets this year and that he will meet with the chief executives of each to discuss their targets and plans.
“The downturn in private sector building output raised concerns that there would be a similar hit to social housing delivery,” Browne said in a statement.
“It appears from these figures that, while there certainly has been an impact, it has not been as pronounced as may have been feared with 7,871 new-build social homes delivered across 2024,” he said.
“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 lands.”
The government came under fire in recent months for missing its overall 2024 housing target of 40,000 homes by a margin of 10,000.
The outgoing government has said in the run-up to the election that the target would be met but subsequent revelations showed ministers had been warned beforehand that it would be missed.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the Government has “failed miserably” to deliver on their housing targets.
“Targets that were too low to begin with. The consequence of this failure is making the housing crisis worse,” he said.
Ó Broin accused the Government of “deliberately misleading the press and public by presenting figures which are simply untrue” because they are “embarrassed by their own failure”.
“The only way to reduce homelessness, cut social housing waiting lists and ensure working people have access to affordable homes, is through the delivery of large volumes of new build social, affordable purchase and affordable rental homes,” he added.
The figures published today paint a picture of various types of housing delivery in 2024, especially in the last three months of the year.
5,751 new build social homes were delivered by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies in the final quarter of the year, while 80 new construction schemes (1,489 homes) were added to the pipeline.
Over 2,550 affordable housing supports were delivered and around 480 First Home scheme approvals were issued in quarter four, bringing the total number of approvals in 2024 to 2,851.
There were 309 new Local Authority Affordable Purchase homes recorded in the last three months of 2024.
The number of cost rental homes from Approved Housing Bodies doubled in 2024, with 1,200 delivered last year.
Browne said that reaching the country’s overall annual targets is “dependent on each local authority meeting their target and we cannot afford for any individual local authority to fall behind”.
“I also intend to begin publishing the delivery achieved by all local authorities – as set against their targets – to allow for greater engagement with the delivery of new-build social housing at a more local level, right where these homes are needed,” he said.
“Publishing such statistics on a quarterly basis is essential to our commitment to transparency with the public.”
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The Mercy has been overwhelmed for a very long time now, this was inevitable. There have been documented accounts of fights at the front door and violence inside the A&E. Overcrowding in the A&E and lack of beds is only going to escalate tensions and potential conflict. A review now is insulting a very much too little too late. I feel sorry for the staff having to deal with this, it’s very much not an isolated incident. Management, the HSE and the minister need a proper response to this, not a short term fix. RIP to Mr Healy and sympathies to his family, horrendous news.
Typiclal Union attempting to score points. Show some respect ffs
@SquideyeMagpie: The INMO has highlighted this issue well before this incident. There has been 33000 assaults on nurses in the last 7 years.
@Maria: Sick society.
It saddens me that this type of violence has crossed over into our Hospitals and the safety of those nurses and doctors is further put at risk. We all know this has been a long time coming, from drunks overcrowding A&E’s to drug addicts to mental health issues. But yet the priority by the I.N.M.O. and Phil Ní Sheaghdha is solely pay ( I totally get and support the pay issue), whereas the priority should surely be about safe working conditions and safety for patients. Are issues like safety, recruitment, i.e. more staff, agencies and the training and keeping of more nurses. Are safety conditions not more worthy of strike action than pay. It is not that the H.S.E. and I.N.M.O. etc don’t know what the problems are, it is that they don’t want to be bothered by trying to find a solution. E.G. Last week the HSE paid out E31m in compensation in a birth case, which has been an ongoing issue for years but it keeps on happening, that money and the excessive amounts paid to recruitment agencies could be pumped back into Health. Two weeks ago
Perhaps Minister Neale Richmond could do what Damien English failed to do and challenge the injunction Top Security have opposing the ERO for security workers who are stuck on €11.65/h since 2019
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