‘These are not homes, they’re policy failures waiting to happen’: Housing supply concerns for Kildare raised

Irish housing supply concerns have been raised by a local councillor based in County Kildare.

According to Cllr Chris Pender of the Social Democrats, the government’s latest plan to increase housing supply is "a case of rolling back basic standards and hoping no one notices".

Elaborating on his views, the Kildare-Newbridge rep said yesterday (July 8 last): "The Minister signed off on new apartment guidelines that will see homes built with less space, less light, and no requirement for private outdoor areas.

"These changes are being spun as innovation, but they’re nothing new... In fact, we’ve seen this approach fail again and again.

He continued: "In 2015, Alan Kelly reduced studio sizes to 40 square metres... In 2018, Eoghan Murphy reduced them further to 37 square metres; and now, in 2025, we’re told 32 square metres will somehow solve the crisis. It won’t... It will fail — again."

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"Let me be clear, I live in a small apartment. I understand exactly how space, light and design affect your quality of life. These aren’t luxuries, they’re essentials, and once they’re designed out, they’re gone for good."

Cllr Pender claimed: "The new standards reduce dual-aspect requirements to just 25 per cent, scrap any need for three-bed units in private schemes, allow half of all apartments to be built without balconies or terraces, and reduce the number of homes that must exceed the minimum size.

"Local authorities, meanwhile, have been stripped of the power to push for better.

"Call this what it is a developer-friendly deregulation plan dressed up as a housing solution... these are not homes, they’re policy failures waiting to happen."

Cllr Pender also said that the matter was not about "affordability", "community", or "dignity".

Instead, he insisted, it is "about making homes smaller, faster, and more profitable, and telling people to be grateful for it".

He further said: "We were told by the Housing Commission that we need a radical reset of housing policy.

"What we’ve got instead is a Minister stuck in the past, repeating the same broken policies that got us here in the first place.”

"From lifting rent caps to now cutting housing standards, this government is making our housing system more expensive, more precarious, and more disconnected from the people who actually live in it."

Cllr Pender concluded: "What we need are homes people can live in, not boxes they can be squeezed into.... we need ambition, not austerity-in-design, and we need leadership that doesn’t confuse deregulation with vision."

The Department of Housing has been contacted by the Leinster Leader in relation to Cllr Pender's comments.

Social Democrats Cllr Chris Pender. File photograph