Planning Permission Urged to Prioritise Long-Term Homeless Families
Long-term homeless families with children should be placed at the top of housing queues, a directive recently issued to local councils highlights an urgent need to address homelessness through planning permission reforms.
The rising homelessness crisis in Ireland, especially among families with children, has prompted government calls for councils to prioritise these families in social housing allocations. This strategic move intersects with ongoing changes in planning permission aimed at fast-tracking social and affordable housing delivery. Recent legislation streamlines approval processes, intended to cut delays that previously hindered housing scheme approvals and stalled developments.
The Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2025 introduces a simplified approval framework, moving social housing projects through a single-stage process from the third quarter of 2025. This reform directly supports the prioritisation of vulnerable groups by speeding access to housing stock, aiming to align planning policy with social imperatives. Councils are urged to integrate these priority measures into housing allocation systems, thereby facilitating more immediate solutions for long-term homeless families.
Additionally, the planning system reforms are designed to accommodate environmental safeguards without excessive delay. For instance, mandatory environmental impact assessments remain integral to ensure sustainability. The streamlined process also seeks to mitigate risks related to flood-risk development, balancing expedient housing delivery with safety and compliance.
Beyond homelessness, the reforms address broader housing supply challenges with a renewed focus on avoiding material contraventions that previously resulted in protracted appeals and judicial reviews, often delaying projects by months or years. By aligning planning permission standards more closely with housing demand and social needs, the government aims to unlock stalled developments and enhance community trust in the process.
These adjustments coincide with fiscal policy updates and evolving property taxation frameworks that influence local authorities’ capacity to endorse housing projects. For example, changes in Local Property Tax bands since November 2025 may affect municipal revenue and resource allocation towards housing development and planning permission evaluations.
Housing advocates support that prioritising long-term homeless families with children is critical, as this vulnerable group faces the most acute and persistent housing insecurity. The revamped planning permission landscape offers practical tools to deliver targeted social housing quickly, helping to meet governmental commitments to ending homelessness by 2030.
In sum, councils are called on to translate new planning permission reforms into action by rearranging housing queues to benefit the most affected families first. This policy seeks to integrate speedier housing scheme approval with necessary environmental and planning oversight, thereby delivering socially responsible and legally compliant housing solutions.
Originally reported in The Irish Times on Sun, 07 Dec 2025 07:00:37 +0000. Full story
