Government claims of Local Authority Housing output – totally bogus
Government claim 4269 new council homes in 2017 whereas real figure from National Oversight & Audit Commission shows only just over 2000 homes added to the stock – more than 50% less than being claimed
In a statement this afternoon, Richard Boyd Barrett TD, said the government’s claims of the number of additional Local Authority Houses built in 2017 was “totally bogus”.
The government’s figures from the “Housing Delivery 2017” report claim that the total number of homes added to Local Authority Stock in 2017 was 4269 but when compared with the total number of homes added to social housing stock detailed in the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC), in the same year, the figure in reality is only 2019 – less than 50% of the figure claimed by government.
The National Oversight and Audit Commission published their Performance Indicators Report in September 2018 showing that in the course of 2017 only 2019 homes had been added to the Local Authority Stock across the country. The same report shows that only 564 homes were added to the stock across the 4 Dublin City Councils.
In contrast the figures produced by the Department of Housing in their “Rebuilding Ireland Housing Delivery 2017 – Social Housing & New Home Indicators” report claim that the number of Local Authority New Builds, Voids and Acquisitions added to social housing stock in 2017 was 4269.
The department’s numbers do not take into account demolitions or houses sold and now it is clear they are misrepresenting what they refer to as “voids”, which are in fact for the most part casual vacancies.
Richard Boyd Barrett said: “It now seems clear that the government’s figures for 2017, of new council homes, are totally bogus. This has huge implications, not just for 2017, but for this year’s figures and for all government targets.
“The NOAC figures, which take everything into account, provide clear evidence that the government is blatantly spinning and inflating Local Authority Housing output figures.
“It is really scandalous that the government would do this. It is clear that they are double counting the figures in order to mask the disastrous failure of their Rebuilding Ireland plan.
“Fine Gael is presiding over the worst housing crisis in the history of the state and a humanitarian disaster that is daily getting worse, but rather than address the problem by actually building council homes, they persist in efforts to deceive people.
“Minister Murphy has questions to answer and he needs to tell the truth.”
[pdf-embedder url=”http://pbp.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/rebuilding-Ireland-compressed.pdf” title=”Rebuilding Ireland Figures”]
