Ms Jackie Maguire:

I thank the committee for its invitation to attend this afternoon’s meeting to discuss the implementation of Housing for All. I am joined by my colleagues, Mr. Barry Lynch, director of services for housing, community and cultural development, and Mr. Dara McGowan, director of corporate affairs and governance, climate action and emergency services, who has specific responsibility for derelict sites and the council’s vacant homes unit.

My submission includes summaries of housing delivery under Rebuilding Ireland and projected delivery under Housing for All in tables 1 and 2, respectively. Table 1 outlines a delivery output of 1,665 units across the various housing mechanisms for the four-year period 2018 to 2021 against a set target of 1,190 in the Rebuilding Ireland programme. That is an excess of 475 units. Table 2 outlines what is planned to be delivered by the Meath County Council over the life of the housing delivery action plan which would entail the acquisition of approximately 10 ha of land for the construction of social housing schemes as outlined in the plan. A much greater scale of land acquisition would be required to fully eliminate existing net need and pent-up demand due to transfer applications. The support of the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage in sanctioning an additional 13 staff for the social housing capital programme is acknowledged. Meath County Council is active across a number of delivery streams and of which I will now give an overview.

The national age-friendly shared service for housing for older people is hosted by Meath County Council and is dedicated to promoting the provision of age-friendly housing nationally through a network of age-friendly technical advisers and through online channels primarily the agefriendlyhomes.iewebsite. At a local level single applicants who are over 55 years account for 11.6% of the gross housing need in the county. The council is working to address this need through a combination of its own direct construction schemes and in collaboration with the approved housing bodies, such as the recently opened Colliers Place in Duleek. Meath County Council is currently at planning stage for a pilot scheme in Carrick Street in Kells where 30% of the 47 units are to be built to universal design standards. This project involves the regeneration of a significant town centre brownfield site and Meath County Council intends to replicate this regeneration approach elsewhere in the county, for example, at Brews Hill in Navan.

Turning to projections on activation of vacant properties, the preliminary census data for 2022 indicates a vacancy rate of Meath of 5.81% compared with a national rate of 7.85%. Geo Directory data for the fourth quarter of 2021 indicates a much lower vacancy rate of 3% compared with a national average of 4.4%. While the vacancy rate in Meath is low, the council is taking a number of measures to bring vacant stock back into use.

Meath Council has established its Town Centre First section in corporate affairs and governance. To complement this section, the town regeneration officer will also be responsible for managing the vacant homes officer and derelict sites officer. It is the intention that this new team working together will endeavour to increase the number of properties brought back into use. In recent years, the council has brought back 87 properties through the following schemes. The buy and renew scheme funds local authorities to purchase and renew housing units in need of remediation and make them available for social housing use. Between 2017 and 2022, the council secured 55 properties under this scheme. The repair and lease scheme funds works to suitable vacant properties, to bring them up to the standard for rented accommodation and the cost of the works is then deducted from lease payments over an agreed lease term. The council has secured just one property under this scheme since 2018. Change of use exemptions provide for commercial properties that have been vacant for more than two years to avail of the exemptions from planning legislation if converting the property to residential use. There have been 18 notifications received by the council between 2018 and 2022. Derelict sites legislation allows the council to acquire properties that are considered vacant and where the owners are not carrying out appropriate improvement works. Between 2019 and 2022, the council acquired 13 derelict sites or vacant properties via a CPO process. Meath County Council will continue to utilise the various schemes outlined above to bring properties back into use for social housing purposes.

Part V delivery is entirely dependent on the level of construction activity in the private sector. An average of 90 Part V units per annum was delivered during the last plan and this level of activity has helped inform the housing delivery action plan for 2022 to 2026. The plan provides for an estimated 277 local authority Part V units with the remainder to be provided under arrangements with the approved housing body sector. Risk factors to achieving this include construction cost inflation and supply chain issues which may slow the pace of activity. The transitional provisions for Part V adopted as part of the Affordable Housing Act 2021 mean that it will take some time for the increase in Part V from 10% to 20% to flow through to house completions. Where feasible the council also looks to secure additional units over and above the Part V requirement on a turnkey basis.

Finally, on cost rental and affordable housing, affordable delivery in the county will be achieved through a number of mechanisms in addition to local authority provision, including the first home scheme and cost-rental units provided by the approved housing bodies. The council’s own target as set by the Department is to provide 151 units over the period of the housing delivery action plan. This will be achieved by a combination of turnkey arrangements, involving direct sales to approved applicants, in co-operation with local developers and the Land Development Agency as well as some direct construction activity. While it is anticipated that the majority of units will be for affordable purchase the council will also examine the feasibility of providing cost-rental units directly. The council wishes to acknowledge the support of the Department in sanctioning three additional staff for the purpose of affordable housing delivery.

Meath County Council intends to deploy all the resources at its disposal to implement the various measures contained in Housing for All and the foregoing outlines some of the key aspects involved in achieving this. We are happy to deal with any questions members may have.