Building more social housing would help stop the slowdown in the construction sector and could provide a "softer landing" for house prices, the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) has said.
Speaking last night before the opening of the National Social Housing Conference in Wexford, executive director of the ICSH Donal McManus said the number of social housing units built each year must at least double to satisfy housing need and for the sake of the economy.
He said social housing accounted for only 6 per cent to 7 per cent of all houses built each year. This needed to be increased to at least 10 per cent to 15 per cent to meet the needs of the 43,000 households seeking social-rented accommodation.
"Evidence indicates that construction work on the number of new private homes being started on site, as well as the number of planning permissions now being granted by local authorities, has fallen significantly."
He said the current economic climate offered the Government a unique opportunity to dramatically increase social housing output.
Prior to 2000 there was a shortage of private houses, but surplus capacity had now been built up in the private housing sector, and these houses could be transferred to the social-rented sector.
The Government could also commission more social housing to be built to "keep the sector active". It was likely to get these units at better prices because developers would be eager to compete for contracts to build new schemes.
"An expansion of the output of social housing in the current climate can ensure a number of objectives can be met, such as more people from the waiting lists being housed. The Government could secure better value for money with surplus capacity and the opportunity for more competitive tender prices."
The ICSH is also calling on the Government to produce a more accurate picture of housing need. Current housing lists were based on 2005 figures, said Mr McManus.
"We need more up-to-date figures; we are relying on an assessment of need that's almost three years out of date, which makes it very difficult to plan for the future. It should not be beyond our capabilities to have more periodic figures."
Fr Seán Healy, director of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), addressed the conference's opening session last night.
He said social inclusion required that people's social, economic and cultural rights were delivered, and this included the delivery of "appropriate accommodation" that catered for all stages of a person's life.
