James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I very much welcome this opportunity to come before the House to discuss the Government’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. The development of this new housing plan was a commitment under the programme for Government. It reaffirms that housing is the number one priority for all arms of government, including local government, and expects that all people and organisations, whether public or private, will play their part in tackling the challenges we face in increasing housing supply and reducing homelessness. The Government is entirely focused on building 300,000 new homes. By the end of 2030, there will be 72,000 additional new build social homes built for those in our society that need them most. Our goal remains a housing system that truly serves the needs of our people. That is why we are committed to also providing 90,000 affordable housing supports. Delivering Homes, Building Communities is ambitious - of that there is no doubt - but the Government is fully committed to making it a reality.

Delivering Homes, Building Communities also builds on the achievement under Housing for All with over 137,000 new homes built, 44,000 social homes and nearly 16,900 affordable housing supports provided, with 4,500 of these being cost-rental homes, a tenure type that did not exist just five years ago. This gives the Government a strong platform to scale up housing delivery and under Delivering Homes, Building Communities, we are focused on delivery. This will not be easy and there is no one single solution that will solve the housing challenges we face. That is why Delivering Homes, Building Communities takes pragmatic action across a number of different policy areas to boost housing supply while ensuring that the new homes delivered support people who need them the most. These two key objectives provide the foundational pillars in the plan: activating supply and support people. The first pillar, activating supply, is about removing structural barriers to homebuilding and ensuring we deliver 300,000 new homes in the lifetime of this plan. This includes measures aimed at unlocking land, reforming planning, delivering infrastructure and creating the conditions needed to increase investment in housing supply.

Delivering Homes, Building Communities is enabled by the largest ever capital investment in the history of the State. A total of €275 billion will be invested over the next ten years under the national development plan, to significantly upgrade our infrastructure and make the environment for building homes much better. This cannot be overstated. This includes almost €20 billion to support the delivery of 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable home supports over the next five years. It also includes €12.2 billion for water and wastewater services and €3.5 billion in equity funding for ESB Networks and EirGrid to make sure that we have the capacity in these vital services to make housing connections as and when they are needed. The Uisce Éireann investment is particularly significant. Of the €12.2 billion funding provided, 95% of it will be used to support the delivery of a wide range of projects in cities and regions to ensure the delivery of the additional water services capacity required for new housing. Investment in transport will also be critical to unlocking housing. Up to €3.5 billion will be invested in transport projects, which will support the delivery of tens of thousands of homes across the five cities. We have also introduced a €1 billion infrastructure investment fund, which will help to de-risk the development of sites in towns and cities across the country. This will be managed and deployed by the housing activation office.

A key change element of Delivering Homes, Building Communities is the emphasis it places on creating the environment needed for the building of more homes. One vital part of this is creating the right conditions to attract inward investment in housing development, particularly in building apartments. Delivering Homes, Building Communities details a suite of complementary measures to do just this. They will result in the development of thousands of new apartments. The measures include: the changes announced to rent pressure zones, RPZs, to attract private investment back into the rental sector; the new planning design standards for apartments; a reduction in the VAT rate to 9% from 13.5%; an enhanced corporation tax deduction; and an exemption from corporation tax for cost-rental homes. The cumulative impact of these could result in a reduction of up to €160,000 in the cost of delivery to apartments. This is a significant amount of cost savings per unit, and it has the potential to unlock thousands of apartments that were not viable just six months ago. Another such measure is the establishment of the housing activation office. The office is now up and running. The team has met with all local authorities and industry and is actively developing a programme of investment to get more homes built. The office will identify and address barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development, through the alignment of funding and co-ordination of infrastructure providers.

To deliver more homes at speed, the State will indeed do more, but this plan will also empower others, particularly the private sector, to play their part. We can all agree that an effective planning system remains a critical piece of the solution. Delivering Homes, Building Communities is not only tackling the barriers in the planning system, but also those in the legal system, regulation and procurement. We will free-up the private sector to provide homes at much greater scale by providing more zoned and serviced land for housing right across the country. The full implementation of the Planning and Development Act 2024 will be another game-changer for the wider housing system. It will provide certainty to all practitioners but particularly developers. Having set timelines for decisions allows developers to better manage projects. This, in turn, will have positive impacts on the cost of housing development.

The Government is also committed to creating the best possible conditions for the industry to build and to activate more homes. We have not waited until the publication of this plan to get on with the work. Since coming to office, the Government has delivered a revised national planning framework, NPF, enabling the zoning of significantly more land. We have introduced reform of RPZs and revised apartment standards, both of which will make apartment building more viable. Working across government, Delivering Homes, Building Communities also involves measures to boost construction capacity and skills. The scale, quality, speed, efficiency and sustainability of the construction industry must be at the highest levels to meet national housing projections. Increasing skills and enabling wider adoption of modern methods of construction, MMC, is a critical aspect to achieve this and support the delivery of high-quality housing with reduced delivery times and reduced costs. In addition, while housing need is so critical, addressing vacancy and dereliction remains a key priority of the Government under Delivering Homes, Building Communities. The plan commits to bringing homes back into use through the vacant property refurbishment grant and the introduction of a new derelict sites tax, administered and collected by the Revenue Commissioners.

As I have outlined, the Government will lead with record investment and strong direction, but success also depends on local authorities, the Land Development Agency, LDA, approved housing bodies, AHBs, and the private sector playing their part. The LDA has been further capitalised by €2.5 billion. This will support a significantly expanded role. In addition to over 2,000 homes already delivered, the agency is working on a pipeline of a further 27,000 new homes on over 40 sites. Local authorities will be supported as well. A number of measures detailed in the plan will ensure the delivery of record levels of social homes and affordable housing supports by local authorities. A new single stage approval process for all social housing projects under €200 million will support them to increase and accelerate the delivery of new homes. The Government will also support and fully fund local authorities to establish ring-fenced new build teams that are fully focused on delivering new social and affordable homes. This will ensure there is additional dedicated housing expertise in every local authority. These teams will be solely focused on the delivery of new homes. They will be afforded the opportunity to develop own build projects, problem solving as they go while developing a strong pipeline of future social and affordable homes. They will be recognised for over-performance to incentivise delivery of the 72,000 new social homes by 2030. We will also put in place measurements and publish data to illustrate how everybody contributes.

Every part of society has a role to play. The housing crisis affects us all and solving it will need everyone to act together. Affordable housing bodies also play an invaluable role in housing delivery that complements local authority social and affordable home delivery, helping to address acute housing needs, including for many of our most vulnerable citizens. They have been responsible for approximately 50% of all social and affordable delivery over the past four years. The Government is committed to strengthening capacity and specialism in the AHB sector to increase delivery. This will include, among other things, supporting a restructuring and consolidation of the sector, addressing legacy impediments and providing greater clarity of the required social and affordable housing delivery by AHBs through local authority housing delivery action plans.

The second pillar, supporting people, is aimed at supporting people to get a home. It is focused on tackling homelessness, protecting children and families, increasing social and affordable housing output and strengthening protections for those renting. It supports homeownership - giving new buyers a chance to put down roots, while revitalising villages, towns and cities.

I am acutely aware of the profound impact homelessness has on individuals, particularly children, and addressing homelessness is a key priority under Delivering Homes, Building Communities. This includes measures to prevent homelessness, support people experiencing homelessness and support people to exit homelessness.

As part of this plan I felt it was essential to reaffirm my, and the Government’s, commitment to the Lisbon declaration and working towards ending homelessness by 2030. I will also continue to work with the national homeless action committee to ensure a whole-of-government approach is taken in everything we do to address homelessness. The single biggest intervention we can make as a Government is to deliver increased levels of social homes. An additional 72,000 social homes will make a big difference. We will also work with each local authority to examine how the allocations of these new social homes will best address the needs of households experiencing homelessness and, in particular, families with children. On top of this, Delivering Homes, Building Communities includes a number of additional measures that the Government will take to address homelessness, including the provision of an extra €100 million capital funding in 2026 to support the exit of families longest in emergency accommodation. This is in addition to the €50 million already announced for 2025. We will also develop a child and family homelessness action plan and a whole-of-government homelessness prevention framework. Both will allow for a co-ordinated approach to addressing the root causes of homelessness.

I also want to detail some of the action the Government is taking to support our ageing population. Providing housing for older people is very important to this Government. We will develop an action plan to increase the delivery of housing for older people. The action plan will focus on increasing the delivery of social homes for older people, increasing delivery of more suitable homes for older people in private housing and will increase choice for those who wish to rightsize.

This plan is focused on supporting people to get a home and the Government has committed to record levels of direct funding for housing to support this. In 2026 alone, over €9 billion capital funding will be provided through the Exchequer, LDA and Housing Finance Agency. This funding is targeting never before seen levels of social homes and affordable supports. An average of 12,000 new build social homes and 15,000 affordable home supports each year to 2030. This will provide real homes and supports for individuals and families right across the country who are currently struggling to secure a home of their own. We will also continue to work with our stakeholders to revise, expand and improve the range of affordability supports in place for home ownership and cost rental. This will be done within the context of investing in our towns, villages and cities recognising the importance of community in people’s daily lives.

Through the implementation of Housing for All, we have learned that there is no single solution to the challenges we face. The answer lies in a suite of complementary actions across a broad number of areas. Delivering Homes, Building Communities provides a clear roadmap for the action that now needs to be taken. The state will continue to play a critical role, investing unprecedented levels of public money in the delivery of housing. We will continue to consider every lever at our disposal to increase supply. We remain steadfast in our commitment to meet the challenges head on and ensure all those aspiring own their own home will be able to realise their aspiration.

I look forward to hearing Members’ views and perspectives on these vital matters.

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