Options
The Future of Council Housing An analysis of the financial sustainability of local authority provided social housing
Author(s)
Date Issued
2018-06-26
Date Available
2019-05-13T09:04:09Z
Abstract
For most of the period since social housing was first built in Ireland in the late 19th Century, local authorities have been its main providers. Local authorities have provided 365,350 council houses and flats since then and these dwellings accounted for 22.2% of the total Irish housing stock in 2016. These dwellings have made a major contribution to providing affordable, good-quality and secure accommodation for low-income households, and also to improving the quality and increasing the size of the Irish housing stock.
The last three decades have seen a significant reduction in the traditional role of council housing as the primary source of accommodation for low-income renters however. In 1994, council housing tenants accounted for 73.2% of the low-income renting households in receipt of government housing supports. By 2016, this had fallen to just 53%.
In part, this development reflects the decline in council housing output following the sharp contraction in the funding available to this sector after the economic crisis commenced in the late 2000s. Total public funding for new council housing fell by 94% between 2008 and 2013. It also reflects longer term factors such the tradition of selling council housing to tenants which dates back to the 1930s. In addition since the 1980s governments have relied increasingly on other sources of housing for low-income households. These include: not-for-profit sector approved housing bodies (AHBs) and government subsidies for private rented housing such as Rent Supplement and Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).
Sponsorship
University College Dublin
Other Sponsorship
Community Foundation of Ireland
Type of Material
Technical Report
Publisher
Community Foundation of Ireland
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
File(s)
No Thumbnail Available
Name
The_Future_Of_Council_Housing_(Norris_Hayden).pdf
Size
1.86 MB
Format
Owning collection
Views
2026
Last Week
9
9
Last Month
35
35
Acquisition Date
Mar 27, 2024
Mar 27, 2024
Downloads
834
Last Week
11
11
Last Month
21
21
Acquisition Date
Mar 27, 2024
Mar 27, 2024