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The Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office is helping local authorities provide thousands of new social and affordable homes for Ireland
STRATEGY
Image: A housing development completed by Donegal County Council
Eddie Taaffe
Programme Coordinator, Housing Delivery Coordination Office
Margaret Geraghty
Assistant Programme Coordinator, Housing Delivery Coordination Office
Local authorities are tasked with the delivery of social and affordable housing in partnership with the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (DHLGH), Irish Water, the Approved Housing Body sector and the private sector.
The Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office (HDCO) was established in 2020. The HDCO is tasked with coordinating and advising on the delivery of social and/or affordable housing by local authorities. A team of project managers works with all local authorities, government departments, AHBs and external stakeholders – including the Land Development Agency (LDA), the Housing Agency, utility companies and joint venture partners – to maximise the efficient delivery of sustainable housing solutions aimed at achieving the targets set out for local authorities in the Programme for Government.
Delivery support
The local authority sector plays a key role in delivering homes under the various schemes, utilising their land banks to support the provision of social and affordable housing and allowing larger-scale mixed-tenure sites to be delivered more effectively.
The HDCO has concentrated its activities on the local authority social and affordable housing delivery programme. The HDCO also has a role in co-ordinating the social housing energy retrofit programme and the sector’s migration to planned housing maintenance.
2030 targets
Housing for All is a multi-annual programme that outlines specific targets and objectives for both social and affordable housing provision to 2030. The Programme for Government has committed to delivering 47,000 new social dwellings by 2026 and to placing affordability at the heart of our housing system. Each local authority has a social housing delivery target, set on a yearly basis to deliver the overall objectives of the plan.
In addition,18 local authorities have been given targets to deliver more than 8,900 affordable homes either for affordable purchase or Cost Rental. Affordable homes will be delivered under one of the three delivery strands which have been provided for in the Affordable Housing Act 2021:
- Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme
- Cost Rental (Local authorities, AHB and LDA)
- Expanded Part V Affordable Delivery in private housing developments
“The Programme for Government has committed to delivering 47,000 new social dwellings by 2026 and to placing affordability at the heart of our housing system.”
HDCO support
The HDCO project managers work with local authorities and the various stakeholders and act as a two-way conduit between departmental national policy for social and affordable housing and local authority operational delivery of housing. The HDCO supports local authorities by:
A) Providing expert guidance and advice on best practice approaches to social, affordable and mixed-tenure housing delivery, helping to overcome obstacles and barriers and how to address these directly or in collaboration.
B) Providing advice on delivery channels and providing technical and managerial support and practical advice on non-traditional delivery channels, including joint ventures and partnerships with other organisations such as the LDA and Approved Housing Bodies.
C) Developing best practice in project management including procurement, programme tracking, management of the critical path of construction projects and interaction with the various utilities/contractors/sub-contractors who deliver schemes as part of Housing for All.
D) Supporting local authorities with appropriate and specialised skill sets such as programme/project/contract management, technical advice, economic and financial guidance, governance and risk.
E) Providing support and advice on the conceptual scoping of projects and the procurement of preliminary supporting reports of a technical, socio-economic or financial nature where necessary and any support needed for design team services.
F) Supporting local authorities in their engagement and collaboration with delivery partners including AHBs, the LDA and the Housing Finance Agency.
G) Enabling continuous improvement in the quality and long-term operation and management of social and affordable housing delivery.
H) Working with the housing development and construction sector to identify opportunities and liaise with local government.
I) Working closely with the CCMA Housing, Building and Land Use Committee, Housing Agency, LDA, DHLGH, Irish Water and other stakeholders.
J) Working closely with the Dublin Housing Delivery Group established in June 2021 with the purpose of co-ordinating and driving delivery of social and affordable housing in the four Dublin local authorities.
K) Supporting the City and County Management Association and the Local Government Management Agency engagement with the Social and Affordable Housing Delivery Groups of the Department, comprised of the key delivery partners.
L) Collecting and collating real-time credible data on delivery and messaging of same to support ongoing review of the housing delivery programme through the design and development of appropriate reporting tools and key performance indicators.
HDCO team
Eddie Taaffe, Programme Coordinator
Margaret Geraghty, Assistant Programme Coordinator
Walter Holden and Clodagh Lyons, Project Managers Local Authorities
Eileen Davis, Project Manager IT
Laurence Lett and Jennifer Doran, Project Managers Energy Retrofit Programme
Emer O'Callaghan, Project Manager Affordable Housing Delivery
Contact us by email at: hdco@lgma.ie
