Some 75 vacant social houses refurbished and re-let locally during 2020

Thirty one vacant social homes in Westmeath and 44 in Roscommon were brought back into use during 2020, new figures have shown.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien welcomed the fact that nationally the 2020 Voids Stimulus Programme has exceeded targets with 2,565 social homes refurbished and brought back into use across the country.

Minister O’Brien thanked Westmeath County Council for their work in refurbishing and re-letting 31 homes in the county and Roscommon County Council for bringing 44 units back into the social housing pool in that county.

Overall in 2020, €56.4m was spent to bring a total of 3,607 vacant homes back into productive use within the social housing stock. This represents the highest ever yearly spend and the highest number of homes to be refurbished under the voids programme.

Specifically, as part of the Stimulus Programme announced in July 2020 Minister O’Brien allocated over €40 million for the refurbishment of 2,500 vacant social homes.

By the end of 2020 1,925 were occupied with a further 640 tenancies accepted. Importantly, 297 of the refurbished homes were reserved for tenancies for homeless households at a cost of €5.2m.

Commenting Minister O’Brien said, “The shutdown in construction activity in the first half of last year has had a big impact on our delivery of new build social housing. The Government decided as part of the July Stimulus to make up for lost ground by allocating €40m for the refurbishment of social housing stock which was otherwise vacant.

“I asked local authorities to ensure that all homes were refurbished and at the very least allocated by the end of the year.