Councillor concerned SDCC will not meet social housing targets in coming years

A South Dublin County Councillor has voiced her concern about the council’s ability to meet targets for the construction of social housing in the coming years.

People Before Profit councillor Madeleine Johansson said that due to council’s low number of builds over recent years, she thinks it will struggle to meet targets set by the Housing for All national plan.

Under the plan, 9,500 new social homes are set to be built annually nationwide.

South Dublin County Council’s target for the period will be 3,287 homes.

This figure includes new builds by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) as well as direct builds by the council.

In a statement, Johansson said she was “very concerned about how South Dublin County Council can achieve the targets set out under the plan.

“Considering that the new build total in 2020 was only 370 homes of which 105 were Part V units provided by private developers.

“This means that there’s a long way to go to meet the annual target of about 650 homes.

“Up to now, the council has mainly built very small numbers of homes on infill sites in existing estates.

“Large sites, such as Kilcarbery and Killinarden, have been sold off to private developers for a small percentage of social housing.

“We need a complete change in how public land is used in order to meet these targets.

“We need to use the vast tracts of council owned lands in the Clonburris SDZ for social and affordable housing only in order to tackle the housing crisis.

“Even if the targets set down by the government are met, it will not be enough to meet demand.

“There are currently about 10,000 households, if you include the HAP transfer list, on the social housing waiting list.

“To really provide housing for all we need a complete change in housing policy, both nationally and locally.”