Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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6. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the key measures to increase social housing availability under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65487/25]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Tá Ceist Uimh. 6, in ainm an Teachta Willie O'Dea á thogáil ag an Teachta Séamus McGrath.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister for housing to outline the key measures to increase social housing availability under the delivering homes, building communities plan?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Séamus McGrath for taking this question on the increase in social housing availability on behalf of Deputy Willie O'Dea.

Since the beginning of 2022, Government has supported the delivery of 35,163 new social homes across thousands of individual projects funded through build, acquisition and leasing programmes. Building on progress made to date, delivering homes, building communities includes a wide range of measures to accelerate new-build social housing delivery to an average of 12,000 new-build social homes a year between 2025 and 2030.

To incentivise local authorities to deliver more own-build projects, a new performance fund will be established. Where a local authority exceeds its own-build target, it will receive additional discretionary funding for the delivery of community and placemaking initiatives and projects. In addition, ring-fenced new-build housing delivery teams in each local authority dedicated to own-build new social and affordable housing delivery will be fully funded by my Department through reimbursement to local authorities on a performance-pay basis.

The new single-approval process for all new-build social housing projects up to a value of €200 million will support local authorities to streamline processes and encourage delivery of larger new-build social housing developments. The land acquisition fund will be reformed, streamlined and expanded to ensure it is fit for purpose and can support the level of ambition in the plan. To this end, the fund will also be increased from the current €239 million to at least €500 million. I will establish a revamped contractor-led renewal programme which will afford opportunities for local tradespersons and contractors to work with local authorities and approved housing bodies to tackle vacancy and dereliction and increase social housing supply.

Delivering homes, building communities will further support additional social housing delivery by mandating the use of standard house layouts and specifications as part of the new approval process and facilitate the use of modern methods of construction, MMC, through a standardised design approach. To further promote the delivery of social housing, I will embed the use of a design-and-build-contract approach in all local authorities and the AHB sector in order to expedite the delivery of social homes.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I particularly welcome the overall target in the housing plan of 12,000 social units per annum, building on the progress made on the Housing for All plan, which, it must be acknowledged, made significant progress in the area of social housing. There are new initiatives in this plan to help deliver social housing such as the performance fund for local authorities, which is critical. Many local authorities do a great job but others not so. It is important that recognition is given to those that do a good job. Having ring-fenced teams is also critically important. The revision of the land acquisition fund is very significant because that is a particular issue across the country in terms of local authorities having a land bank available to them for the development of social housing. Of course, the standardisation of design is critically important to make the delivery of social housing more efficient.

I will be touching modern methods of construction in a further question, but it is welcome to see that also included in the delivery of social housing because we have to embrace that technology.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The absolute priority for me, the Department and the Government is to maximise new builds. That is where we want to be at and, after that, forward-funded schemes to deliver homes where perhaps there is planning permission but which may not otherwise be built. We need to move away from pure turnkey as much and as quickly as possible. A key part of this delivery is the local authority new-build teams. We will ensure they are adequately resourced, fully funded and ring-fenced from other local authority work and dedicated to social and affordable new-build housing projects, which will be absolutely critical in this regard. Accordingly, my Department will support local authorities to establish these new-build teams which will be fully funded by the Department through reimbursement to local authorities on a performance pay basis.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I think the emphasis on new builds is welcome across the House. I particularly welcome the emphasis on local authorities and indeed the approved housing bodies directly building social homes, which is critically important. Of course, to achieve the targets we need a combined approach. There will also need to be continuation of turnkey and, of course, the delivery of social housing through the Part V provision is also important. They all deliver homes for families and individuals across the country. All these measures combined are welcome and it is important that we maintain a sustained focus to ensure that we get delivery and that we achieve the overall ambition within the plan to deliver social housing targets and, of course, ultimately reduce the homelessness that there is in this country at present.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Meeting our social housing targets is absolutely crucial. Meeting them through new builds is best practice and that is where we want to expand as quickly as possible. However, we need local authorities to lead on their own-build programmes as well because that builds resilience into the system no matter what the economic situation may be to ensure that there is not a reliance of delivery through Part V and turnkeys, output under which can be negatively impacted by market conditions or particular conditions in local authorities. We have seen some local authorities really expand on own builds and I give credit to those local authorities. Some local authorities have exceeded past social housing targets but perhaps were overly reliant on a non-own-build properties. We need to see them develop their capacity. Some local authorities are not achieving under either of those. Crucially, we need all our local authorities moving towards own builds.