Seven councils built no social housing from 2013 to 2015

Seven local authorities built no social housing in the three years from 2013 to 2015, according to figures released by the Department of Housing.

The county councils in Fingal, Leitrim, Limerick, Meath, Sligo and South Dublin, as well as Galway City Council, had no construction activity in these years, the figures show.

A further eight county councils - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Galway, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Tipperary, Roscommon and Wicklow - did not build any local authority homes in 2014 or 2015.

An additional two, Clare County Council and Wexford County Council, built none in 2015.

Highest number

Dublin City Council had the highest number of local authority builds last year, at 19, followed by Waterford at 11 and Monaghan with nine.

The figures show 833 local authority homes have been built since 2011, with just 75 constructed last year.

The Department of Housing said councils only received their allocations in April 2015 and the planning and procurement process can take up to two years.

A spokesman said there are a series of projects under way which will see construction rise to hundreds of homes in 2016.

“The planning process can take between 18 months and two years. We are determined we will see an increase in activity in 2016. Over the next year there will be larger developments under way.”

The figures released by the department also show 2,211 second-hand homes were acquired by local authorities since 2011. Activity stepped up last year when 1,099 were acquired. Dublin had the highest number of acquisitions last year, at 196.

Fingal County Council, which has built no homes since 2012, purchased 113 over the past two years, while Leitrim, which also had no construction in three years, acquired four.

Taoiseach critical

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been critical of local authorities for their failure to respond to the housing crisis. He has said councils have been given the resources to begin construction but have yet to respond to the challenges.

The Department of Housing has said it was always going to take time for local authorities to build homes.

The Government’s Action Plan for Housing commits to 47,000 new social houses between now and 2021 - 26,000 direct builds, 11,000 acquisitions and 10,000 leases. *

Officials are predicting large 10-year developments to begin this year with a move away from traditional council estates. The idea is to develop integrated housing developments with a mixture of social and private houses.

The figures from the department also show 6,642 homes have been completed since the start of this year, including one-off houses, estates and apartment complexes.

In January, 920 units were finished and the number has slowly increased over the past number of months. Builds reached a peak in May at 1,294 before falling to 1,055 in June.

One-off homes

The statistics show 40 per cent were one-off homes, while 16 per cent were apartments.

Fingal had the highest rate of construction, followed by Cork, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Dublin city.

A spokesman for the department said: “200 social housing construction schemes (SHIP funded) are already in the pipeline with stage one approval which will deliver over 3,000 units. The majority will be delivered in 2017 and 2018.

“These are direct builds only and it doesn’t include acquisitions or purchasing of ‘turnkey developments.’ Fifty of these projects will be on site this year.”

*This article was amended on August 5th 2016 to correct an error