Promoting the Benefits of social Housing - The Irish Council for ...

Editorial:Could private sector slowdown provide an opportunity for social housing?Indications are that private residential construction is slowing down based on the number of starts and planning permissionsgranted. Therefore, this surplus capacity should now be transferred to boost the delivery of social housing in the new NationalDevelopment Plan (NDP) and in turn meet the targets agreed by the Social Partners in the national agreement Towards 2016.In addition to delivering new social rented homes, transferring surplus capacity will ensure better value for money in the statefunding of social housing as well as providing a ‘softer’ landing in the residential construction sector. While private housingoutput hit record levels in the last NDP, social housing output always struggled to creep above 10%. Providing social housingthrough housing associations and local authorities has both the obvious social benefits in addressing housing need but also asignificant economic benefit for the Irish economy.Service Indicators in Local Authorities 2006In January 2004, a system of formal performancemeasurement across 42 indicators was implementedthroughout the local authority system. This meant thatperformance results for each local authority could becompiled and published in a report to the Minister for theEnvironment, Heritage and Local Government in 2005. Theresults were verified by an independent assessment panel.This is a first in Irish public service.The third report was published in July 2007 by the LocalGovernment Management Services Board (LGMSB) andcontains the results for each indicator for 2006, the reportalso compares results at a national level for 2004 to 2006. Asummary of the main findings is presented below.Total number of dwellings of local authority stock in managementYearNo of Dwellings2004 111,4572005 113,6882006 115,386Current Status of Local Authority Social Housing StockThe national total of all local authorities has increased by3.5% in two years. Across all local authorities 5,265 (4.6%)of dwellings are empty compared with 3.9% of all dwellingsin 2004. Some of these empty dwellings are those subjectto major refurbishment schemes which will increase thequality of the housing stock. The figures also show a smallimprovement in the average time taken to re-let dwellingsfrom 4 weeks in 2004 to 3.8 weeks in 2006. There is also anincrease of 3% in the average number of repairs completedin 2006 relative to 2004. In 2006 the average percentage ofrepairs completed was 87.8% of the number of valid repairrequests received.Average time (days) to informapplicants of: 2004 2006Shared Ownership 14 8.7Housing Loan 15 8Local Authority Housing 28 29.5Dealing with Applications for Social HousingThe average times taken to inform applicants has marginallyimproved since 2004, with the exception of the time takento inform applicants of local authority housing, as can beseen from the table below.It is clear from these results that the assessment andverification processes vary greatly, moreso in the averagetime to inform applicants of local authority housing. InFingal County Council, the average is reported as 270 dayswith the explanation that there was a significant increasein the housing list in 2006. The average time is nowreported as down now to 28 days. Galway County Counciland Kerry County Council reported on average 104.9 and121.3 days respectively.Performance Management for Housing AssociationsEnsuring that proper standards continue to be achievedis also a key objective for voluntary housing associations.The ICSH undertook a two phased pilot project known asHAPM – Housing Association Performance Managementto assist in developing a framework for measuringperformance in housing management for the sector.The main areas of the framework that member housingassociations agreed to measure included the followinghousing management functions:• Rent Control• Allocations / Lettings• Vacancies / Voids• Repairs & Maintenance• Landlord / Tenant Relations• Customer ServiceThe ICSH are currently examining the roll out of a refinedHAPM framework comprising of 10 Key PerformanceIndicators for the sector. These KPIs are based on thoseelements of housing management that are of interestto both tenants and other stakeholders and that providethe most appropriate information on how well thehousing service is managed. It is anticipated that, in time,performance results for the voluntary sector can alsobe reported on an ongoing basis. The objective at somestage would be to gain some comparison on housingmanagement outcomes between local authorities andhousing associations.ICSH Social Housing