Social Housing

This chapter sketches the most significant trends in the development of the social housing provision in this country from the mid 1800s, until the contemporary period. The opening part of the chapter examines the early housing legislation; explains how it shaped the system of social housing provision and assesses the contribution which social housing providers made to addressing housing need in urban and rural areas. In the second part of the chapter, a more in-depth examination of the development of the social housing sector during the last two decades is presented. This section concentrates on efforts to diversify the methods of providing social housing and the increasing focus on the part of central government on qualitative issues such as efficient housing management and the regeneration of difficult-to-let social rented estates, in addition to its traditional quantitative concern of ensuring that supply of social housing matches need. On the basis of this dis cussion, the concluding comments to the chapter quantify the achievements of the social housing sector in Ireland and identify some of the key questions facing the sector at the current time.