As CEO of Peter McVerry Trust I believe that Budget 2020 can be viewed as one that is positive and which contains a welcome suite of measures which will strengthen the multi-year efforts to grow and accelerate housing delivery.

I warmly welcome additional funds for social housing delivery, additional funds for urban regeneration programmes, more funding to secure pathways out of homelessness through HAP and the extension of the living city initiative.

Despite the huge challenges presented by the climate emergency and the uncertain threats posed by Brexit it is clear from the overall package of funding secured by Minister Murphy and officials at the Department of Housing that huge efforts have been undertaken to not only keep the funds flowing but to secure more funding for an expanded and more ambitious housing programme.

A record capital budget for housing projects and programmes is particularly welcome, everyone is on the same page when it comes to building more social housing units and lessening our reliance on private rental accommodation. The point at which we can see that reliance fall will only come when social housing output rises well above current levels. As President of the Irish Council for Social Housing I know just how much hard work is being put in across the country by housing associations and local authorities to ramp up housing. Budget 2020 and the money secured by Minister Murphy means that there are no financial constraints to what we as housing bodies can deliver.

When we published our Pre Budget submission we focused on three key areas, Prevention, Supply and Employment and Education. The Government has added to the overall budget for homeless services in 202o by a further €20 million bringing the overall spend to €166 million. This money will strengthen existing prevention programmes and help keep more people in their homes.

As regards supply, the extension of the Living City Initiative and the €130 million for the Urban Regeneration fund provide real and immediate opportunities to deliver new homes, including for social use, in town and city centres. The issue of regeneration is crucial in how we drive sustainable housing development and create towns and urban centres which are attractive places to live and work. These two schemes will aid the proposal to encourage more public sector workers to evaluate where they could work from and this will release accommodation pressures particularly in Dublin and allow more housing to be delivered in low and lower cost towns and cities.

Fundamentally Budget 2020 has not only protected existing budgets but significantly enhanced them and this must be acknowledged and respected given the hugely uncertain economic period in the year ahead.

Published – 9th October 2019