Tipperary County Council plans to build 822 social homes over next four years

Tipperary County Council has set a target of building 822 new social homes around the county over the four year period from 2027-2030 and will be striving to surpass that goal, the September meeting of the local authority's councillors was told.

And councillors were informed over three-quarters of the homes the Council proposes to build will be one-bedroom and two-bedroom units to cater for the large number of applicants on its housing list that require these smaller units, which are in scarce supply countywide.

Housing Section senior executive engineer Robert Johnson outlined this information to councillors in his presentation on the Council’s Housing Delivery Action Plan at the council meeting in Clonmel last week.

He said the Council proposes to build 822 social homes between 2027 and 2030 under the national Delivering Homes, Building Communities Programme.

This will represent a 16% increase on the number of homes the local authority built under the previous Housing for All Programme.

The Council built 887 social homes during that five-year programme that ran from 2021-2025.

He stressed the Council will seek to “over-deliver” on its home building targets as it did during the lifetime of Housing for All.

Mr Johnson said the Council will submit its plan to the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage for review this month.

He gave a breakdown of the type of housing units the Council is proposing to build over the next four years.

A total of 472 or 57% of the total will be one-bedroom housing units, while 153 or 19% of the 822 homes will be two-bedroom units.

The Council is proposing to build 144 three-bedroom homes, which translates to 18% of the total and 53 four-bedroom homes, which will be 6% of the overall programme.

The Council’s Housing Delivery Action Plan also outlines the county’s housing needs for older people and people with disabilities.

A need for 198 homes for older persons aged over 60 and 284 homes for people with intellectual, physical and mental disabilities is identified in the plan.

A total of 85 homes are identified for people with mental health disability, 83 homes for people with physical disability, 68 homes for people with intellectual disability, 45 for people with sensory disability and three for people with other disabilities.

Clonmel Workers & Unemployment Action Group Cllr Pat English pointed out there are still 3,500 people looking for social housing in the county, and this level of demand was ongoing since he became a councillor.

He said it wouldn't change until they get much more social homes built and government funding to build them.

Independent Newcastle Cllr Máirín McGrath said it was great to see the first Affordable Housing Schemes get off the ground in Clonmel but the delivery of this type of housing really needed to be ramped up not only in Clonmel but in towns and villages around the county.

“I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be progressed in towns like Cahir, which is a great place to build and provide affordable housing,” she told council management.