Majority of new Laois social houses owned by approved housing bodies

Over 50% of the 315 social houses and apartments in Laois given out to tenants in 2022 are owned by approved housing bodies, and the percentage is set to grow much higher for 2023.

A growing number of people are getting long awaited keys to social homes as the council tries to tackle the housing shortage in Laois, and to cut its waiting list of over 1,800 people and families who cannot otherwise afford a home.

In 2022, 315 people and families were taken off that waiting list and given the keys to houses and apartments .
One fifth of them are people with a disability, totally 67 of the homes.

Just over half of those new tenants, 157 of them, have moved into homes owned by approved housing bodies, which are not for profit private housing agencies approved by Government, such as Cluid, Respond, Sophia and Cooperative Housing.

The swing towards AHB ownerships is set to continue.

There are 347 more social homes under construction to deliver this year in Laois and 259 are being built by AHBs, three quarters of the houses.

The homes come with a clause that tenants will rent for life, and can never have an option to buy them out and own the home, as the housing bodies remain the owners and landlords, not local authorities.

Concern was also recently expressed by some Laois councillors who claim that council tenants are being charged more for rent in AHB owned homes, a query that has not yet been answered by the council which has requested the information from the housing bodies.

The number has grown since 2019 when AHBs accounted for 26 of the new Laois social homes, about 19% of the houses that year.

In 2020 AHBs built 95 social homes in Laois, or 43% of the total. In 2021 they built 102, or 39%.

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Of the remaining 156 tenants of new social homes in 2022, 59 moved into newly built or turnkey council homes, 74 got relet refurbished council homes, 18 moved into homes leased by the council and five into houses purchased by the council.

The council CEO John Mulholland gave the figures at the January meeting.

“Looking back at 2022, 313 people have been housed in the past year through a combination of solutions, our own relets, acquisitions, approved housing bodies and leasing.

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“216 new houses were in existence by the end of December that weren’t there at the start of the year.

“Our target for the year under the Housing for All programme was 200, we have exceeded that. We are confident that a number of houses will be over the line in the next few weeks to add to that,” he said.

Mr Mulholland added that there are 347 more social homes under construction, and a further 469 are being considered or planned.