'Waste of money' - Concerns that housing bodies are not working in Laois

Concerns regarding the amount of funding being allocated to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to deliver housing in Laois have been raised at the November meeting of Laois County Council.

A number of issues with housing were raised at the meeting, particularly relating to AHBs, loans and grants for housing, as well as zoning. 

Cllr Aisling Moran voiced her dissatisfaction with AHBs, stating that the recently released Report of the Approved Housing Body Strategic Forum made for "grim reading."

Cllr Moran argued that the billions of euro being allocated to AHBs is a "waste of money" considering the number of houses being delivered, the costs involved with actually constructing the homes, and that the government do not own the houses once they are built.

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The Graiguecullen/Portarlington councillor said that Laois County Council needs to do direct builds when it comes to delivering housing, as the current system is "not working and it hasn't for a while now."

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald supported Cllr Moran in her questioning of AHBs, stating she herself has "serious doubts" about them.

In response to the issues raised, Laois County Council Chief Executive, Michael Rainey, said that AHBs have been "a very valuable partner to this council since we came out of the last crash." He added: "They've delivered really good housing estates across the county."

Addressing the amount of money being allocated to AHBs, Rainey said: "You're thinking about that figure as a purely capital figure, it's not a capital figure."

He said that the money cannot be divided by the amount of homes built to give the figure of how much each house cost as it includes payment and availability agreements for houses that have been delivered across the country right back since 2010 and 2011, including some stock from the 1980s and 1990s that are "still under some kind of payment arrangement."

Rainey said the council will be delivering their own homes as time goes on but "we can't transition to that overnight, we can't shut down AHB delivery because we're not set up to do it yet." He added, over the next few years the council will transition to direct delivery in line with government policy.

Regarding the general issues with AHBs, Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley added that communications between councillors and AHBs is a major problem. She argued: "As local representatives, we're one step removed from the housing bodies."

Cllr Dwane Stanley told the council that councillors are not given any information on matters involving AHBs and this is leading to issues when communicating with people who are looking for news on important issues such as cost rental schemes.

She said that housing bodies have been vital over the years, "but we have to call a spade a spade when it's no longer working."

Director of Services for Housing at Laois County Council, Donal Brennan said that this would be raised at the next regional AHB forum in February 2026.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme