Minister says local authorities need to step up as government misses social housing target
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.
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.'
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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.
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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