Programme for Government 2025

Programme for Government 2025

Programme for Government 2025

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On 15 January 2025, the Programme for Government was published. Below are excerpts from that document from the housing supply section of the draft document. The full Programme for Government 2025 can be viewed by clicking here.

Excerpts

Introduction (page 7)

“We commit to:
Delivering a strong and stable economy, the homes that people need, providing high quality and accessible public services and the infrastructure required to sustain a growing society.”

Accelerating Housing Supply (pages 40 -47)

More Homes

  • Introduce a new, all of government national housing plan to follow Housing for All, underpinned by a multi-annual funding commitment.
  • Ramp up construction capacity to build over 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030 in line with the revised Housing Targets to meet both existing and future demands.”
  • Implement the Planning and Development Act 2024.
  • Fully resource the Ministerial Action Plan on Planning resources including the recruitment of additional planning staff to help deliver homes faster.
  • Create a regularly updated, public audit of zoned, serviced, and unzoned land, informed by a national land audit, to help plan for 300,000 homes by the end of 2030.
  • Increase the quantum of zoned and serviced land, to accommodate new homes, through the implementation of a revised National Planning Framework.
  • Ensure the Planning and Environment Court is sufficiently resourced to swiftly deal with planning litigation.
  • Enact a new Compulsory Purchase Order Bill with streamlined and strengthened CPO powers to activate under-utilised land for home building.
  • Continue to implement the Land Value Sharing, Residential Zoned Land Tax and Vacancy taxes, with protections for active farmers, to penalise land hoarding and ensure zoned land is developed.
  • Require local authorities to facilitate a pre-planning meeting for every new
  • significant residential, community and infrastructural development above a set threshold, as directed by the Minister.
  • Examine and develop a Green City pilot, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Support Uisce Éireann in the delivery of key strategic projects in our cities and regions. Security of water supply is critical to delivering our housing and economic national priorities.
  • Introduce statutory timelines for preconnections, water / waste water and energy connection agreements, to ensure large developments can proceed without delay.
  • Establish a new procedure for large developments above 100 units where a developer can meet local authority planners and Uisce Éireann on site to iron out issues at pre-planning stage.
  • Invest additional capital in Uisce Éireann to support reaching our new housing targets. We will prioritise water and waste water infrastructure to deliver the capacity to facilitate housing development in our towns and villages.
  • Ensure Uisce Éireann prioritises the delivery of the Small Towns and Villages Programme.
  • Continue to implement the scheme targeting Waste Water Collection and Treatment needs for villages and settlements without access to public waste water services.
  • Establish a new Towns and Cities Infrastructure Investment Fund to replace the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF).
  • Prioritise housing infrastructure in the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) operational practices.
  • Integrate the existing Housing Delivery Groups into a new Strategic Housing & Infrastructure Delivery Office under the Minister for Housing to help co- ordinate and accelerate home building by unblocking infrastructure delays. This office will also co-ordinate investment in the servicing of zoned lands for homebuilding

Under the new Towns and Cities Infrastructure Investment Fund, this Government will:

  • Create a new strategic fund to invest in infrastructure, to acquire land, assemble sites, de-risk sites in existing towns and cities to maximise their potential growth.
  • Support the development of new transport orientated development
    towns as necessary, replicating the development of Clonburris and Adamstown.
  • Continue and expand URDF investments in projects to regenerate the public realm.
  • Include all towns with a population over 10,000 in the designation of ‘key towns’ and ensure towns which fall slightly below the population thresholds are considered for applications under this Fund.
  • Target 12,500 new apprentices annually by 2030, with two-thirds of them in craft/construction, and strengthen links between education providers and the sector.
  • Increase permits for residential construction workers and actively recruit abroad through state agencies and embassies.
  • Achieve stable and predictable policy to attract and retain private investment combined with record state levels of funding to finance the €24 billion per annum needed to build 60,000 homes annually by 2030.
  • Develop new financing sources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, with support from Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI), the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) and domestic banks as well as state support of equity investment.
  • Introduce Cost Rental backstops, allowing local authorities and the LDA to reduce financial risk.

Starter Homes

  • Launch a new, comprehensive Starter Home programme across the public, private and AHB sector, which promotes home ownership and secures long-term rental tenures for young people and fresh start applicants.
  • Support and deliver an average of 15,000 starter homes per year, driven by an expanded First Home Scheme, the Help to Buy support, in addition to other schemes.
  • Retain and revise the Help to Buy scheme.
  • Extend the Scheme until 2030.
  • Work with the banks to expand the First Home scheme to first time buyers of second-hand homes.
  • Extend the scheme to 2030.
  • Increase the First Home scheme targets in keeping with the increase in starter home targets.
  • Repurpose the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme to become part of the Starter Home programme to enhance uptake.
  • Increase the geographic spread of Starter Home Schemes by collaborating with local authorities to expand affordable purchase options in all counties.
  • Create a new central national administration point for the scheme. Ensure the maximum loan values align with current house prices, keeping the scheme accessible.
  • Examine the expansion of the Local Authority Home Loan to allow a separated or divorced person to buy the full mortgage on a home.
  • Examine how the Local Authority Home Loan could support non-bank lender mortgage holders.
  • Continue the Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme to support the construction of apartments for owner occupiers.
  • Maintain the Owner Occupier Guarantee in planning regulations for houses and duplexes and keep the stamp duty surcharges under review to ensure they prohibit bulk purchases.
  • Set an 8-week conveyancing target for the legal profession.
  • Significantly reduce the time taken for the Probate Office to process
  • applications to extract grants of probate. Fully implement e-conveyancing by 2027, reforming outdated legal practices such as wet signature requirements.
  • Accelerate registration of land titles. Establish an expert group to make the home bidding process clearer and more transparent, drawing on international best practices.
  • Task the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission with creating a step-by-step home-buying guide and establishing a dedicated portal for reporting bad practices.

Social Housing

  • Continue to roll out the largest social housing programme in the history of the State, building on average 12,000 new social homes per annum, with local authorities playing a key role in the delivery of this goal.
  • Conclude the review of the Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector to ensure economies of scale are achieved and delivery expertise is enhanced for these strategic delivery partners.
  • Focus local authorities and AHBs on reformed delivery models in achieving new targets and restrict the ability of local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to bulk purchase developments at the end of the construction process.
  • Introduce a new voids programme, implement long term strategic reforms and mandate local authorities to establish voids frameworks to improve the turnaround of vacant social housing units. Require local authorities to provide tenant names to AHBs before project completion for quicker move-ins.

 

This Government will:

  • Reaffirm our commitment to the Lisbon Declaration, and work towards ending homelessness by 2030.
  • Provide emergency accommodation for everyone who needs it with special supports for children impacted by homelessness.
  • Ensure a holistic, cross departmental approach to homelessness prevention.
  • Create 2,000 Housing First tenancies to help eliminate long term homelessness.
  • Require local authorities to prioritise the leasing of one-bedroom units, addressing the immediate needs of single households.
  • Focus social housing allocations on getting families out of long-term homelessness.
  • Continue the Social Housing Tenant in Situ Programme to prevent homelessness, with annual targets and budgets assigned for each local authority.
  • Fully implement the Youth Homelessness strategy.
  • Reform the 1988 Housing Act. Implement the revised Housing Adaptation Grant limits and eligibility criteria.
  • Ensure full draw down of Traveller accommodation funds.

This Government will:

  • Progressively increase the Rent Tax Credit.
  • Build more cost rental units through the LDA, local authorities and Cost Rental Equity Loan funding to AHBs, embedding cost rental as a category of tenure on a permanent basis.
  • Keep the income criteria for cost rental under review to ensure sufficient cohorts of tenants qualify for the scheme.
  • Continue the Secure Tenancy Affordable Rental investment (STAR) scheme to support affordable rents while reviewing its criteria, to ensure greater take up by the private development sector.
  • Help renters seeking to become home buyers with a series of targeted measures through the tax system and the First Home Scheme.
  • Protect Renters and Landlords from abusive practices by- Establishing a Rent Price register. Enhancing the enforcement powers of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) and establishing statutory timelines for dealing with complaints.
  • Continue to review the effectiveness of the Rent Pressure Zones.
  • Continue the landlord tax credit. Earmark certain cost rental units for key local workers.

This Government will: 

  • Extend the vacancy and dereliction refurbishment grants to 2030, continuing to review the grant levels and expand targets in line with an increase in housing targets.
  • Ensure that every local authority has an expanded vacant property team in place to help bring vacant properties back into use.
  • Improve the administration of the vacancy and dereliction grants.
  • Continue the Local Authority Home Loan bridging finance to support the use of the vacancy and dereliction grant.
  • Streamline and update legislation governing CPO powers and derelict sites. Ensure local authorities update, implement and enforce their derelict sites register.
  • Roll out the new special Local Authority Mortgage for vacant properties.
  • Create an ‘Above the Shop’ living refurbishment grant by topping up the vacant and derelict refurbishment grant. This will help make spaces above retail premises liveable.
  • Introduce further ‘Above the Shop’ living incentives through a commercial rates reduction pilot scheme.
  • Continue the Repair and Lease and Buy and Renew Schemes for five more years, targeting 1,000 additional homes
  • annually by building on best practice as demonstrated by Waterford City and County Council.
  • Introduce a cost rental version of the Repair and Lease scheme on a pilot basis.
  • Ensure existing water and waste water connections for vacant and derelict properties are credited in the calculation of new connection charges levied, to derisk the cost of bringing properties back into productive residential use.

Help owners of defective houses and apartments

  • Establish a Buildings Standards Regulatory Authority to strengthen the oversight role of the State in respect of the design and construction of buildings. 
  • Continue to implement an interim remediation scheme for defective apartments.
  • Roll out Retrospective Payment pathfinders.
  • Legislate and implement a comprehensive remediation scheme including retrospective payments for defective apartments.
  • Continue to implement the Defective Concrete Block Scheme.
  • Undertake the planned review of the scheme.
  • In line with legislation, expand the scheme to counties impacted by the issue.
  • Extend eligibility for the Pyrite remediation scheme to include homes with damage category rating of 1 with progression. 
  • Move responsibility for the Multi-Unit Development Acts to the Department of Housing to streamline support for owners’ management companies and improve oversight.
  • Establish a unit in the Housing Agency to regulate owners’ management companies to ensure effective governance.

Practical Housing Options for Positive Ageing

  • Mandate local authorities to find suitable sites for housing specifically designed for older adults, ensuring accessible options within local communities.
  • Simplify and make it easier to convert houses into separate living spaces, allowing older adults to continue living in familiar surroundings while adapting to changing needs.
  • Examine the requirement for exempted development to the rear of a dwelling to be physically attached to the main dwelling house.
  • Review and Standardise the Older Persons Housing Financial Contribution Scheme.
  • Support AHBs in developing and managing senior housing with onsite support services, fostering safe, supportive communities.

Rural Housing

  • Continue to support one-off, rural housing.
  • Continue to support one-off self-builds through the Help to Buy Scheme and the First Home Scheme.
  • Ensure each Local Authority develops serviced sites to facilitate the construction of 3-10 housing units, within at least three towns and villages in their administrative area, on an annual basis via the Ready to Build Scheme.
  • Support group water schemes and private well grants.
  • Implement the special rural water investment scheme (the unsewered villages scheme).
  • Review planning and transport guidelines for national secondary roads to facilitate housing, community and industrial development.
  • Protect and expand the Vacant and Derelict refurbishment grant scheme.
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