Local authorities in lockdown


Q&A with Margaret Geraghty

Director of Housing and Community Services, Fingal County Council, Ireland

GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT & REGENERATION

Kathleen McKillion


Senior Associate, Campbell Tickell

Margaret Geraghty is Director of Housing and Community Services at Fingal County Council, where she is responsible for more than 5,500 homes, as well as development and various services including arts, libraries and sports. Margaret tells Kathleen McKillion, Senior Associate at Campbell Tickell, how her role has changed during COVID-19, lessons learned and what advice she has for other local authorities.

Q&A


What has changed for you since the COVID-19 pandemic began?

Like everybody else, the last few months have brought dramatic, unprecedented change. We are all probably still in the early stages of coming to terms with that.

Critically, the housing demands and the significant efforts under Rebuilding Ireland, to support increasing housing supply, have not gone away. Fingal County Council is 14% ahead of its Rebuilding Ireland target having delivered 6,139 social homes since 2015. To date we have completed 16 new developments with a further 13 in the pipeline. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to support the mobilisation of construction and housing delivery.

The biggest change in my role since lockdown commenced in March has been on the community side. At the national level we have the ‘Community Call’. The first phase mobilised statutory and voluntary organisations across the country to support the immediate needs of people cocooning who were our over 70s people with medical conditions and other vulnerable households. We put a huge operation in place very quickly and had amazing support from all the agencies operating in Fingal.

What has changed for you since the COVID-19 pandemic began?

Like everybody else, the last few months have brought dramatic, unprecedented change. We are all probably still in the early stages of coming to terms with that.

Critically, the housing demands and the significant efforts under Rebuilding Ireland, to support increasing housing supply, have not gone away. Fingal County Council is 14% ahead of its Rebuilding Ireland target having delivered 6,139 social homes since 2015. To date we have completed 16 new developments with a further 13 in the pipeline. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to support the mobilisation of construction and housing delivery.

The biggest change in my role since lockdown commenced in March has been on the community side. At the national level we have the ‘Community Call’. The first phase mobilised statutory and voluntary organisations across the country to support the immediate needs of people cocooning who were our over 70s people with medical conditions and other vulnerable households. We put a huge operation in place very quickly and had amazing support from all the agencies operating in Fingal.

What did this look like?

In the first six weeks, 108 community partners registered with the Community Call willing to provide support to our older citizens and vulnerable households and individuals. The council designed and produced a ‘cocooning booklet’ for older residents and over 8,000 were delivered to people’s homes. Our events team delivered over 94,000 colouring books to local families. Our Library Service moved many services online as quickly as possible and we recorded a massive increase in demand. For example, there was a 128% increase in demand for national and international newspapers and an 800% increase in activity for e-learning. We also introduced a home delivery service for library books to facilitate our older citizens who were cocooning.

The second phase, which was launched recently - ‘In This Together’ - centres around the wellbeing of our citizens. There has been a hugely positive response from all our staff and right across Fingal. We have put in place a strong programme of wellbeing initiatives across our community team, in arts, sports, libraries, culture, events, parks and supporting our older citizens under the Age Friendly programme. Our online ‘Heritage from Home’ initiative is a great example of this. It is a series of articles providing an insight into our heritage and subjects have ranged from old photographs and postcards to Holy Wells and Heritage Trials.

What did this look like?

In the first six weeks, 108 community partners registered with the Community Call willing to provide support to our older citizens and vulnerable households and individuals. The council designed and produced a ‘cocooning booklet’ for older residents and over 8,000 were delivered to people’s homes. Our events team delivered over 94,000 colouring books to local families. Our Library Service moved many services online as quickly as possible and we recorded a massive increase in demand. For example, there was a 128% increase in demand for national and international newspapers and an 800% increase in activity for e-learning. We also introduced a home delivery service for library books to facilitate our older citizens who were cocooning.

The second phase, which was launched recently - ‘In This Together’ - centres around the wellbeing of our citizens. There has been a hugely positive response from all our staff and right across Fingal. We have put in place a strong programme of wellbeing initiatives across our community team, in arts, sports, libraries, culture, events, parks and supporting our older citizens under the Age Friendly programme. Our online ‘Heritage from Home’ initiative is a great example of this. It is a series of articles providing an insight into our heritage and subjects have ranged from old photographs and postcards to Holy Wells and Heritage Trials.

How have you engaged with your customers?

“We have about 1,000 households in Fingal with social housing tenants who are over 70 and a third that live alone”

I cannot stress how important communication and engagement is. Having information from as many sources as possible is very important. People are struggling to pay rent, mortgages, or have housing maintenance queries and other challenges made more difficult by COVID-19.

Our housing team put an enormous amount of effort into communications, using both on and off-line channels. Our housing staff reached out to tenants to help them navigate their different issues. It was also an opportunity to check in with our tenants to see how they were doing and if there were other services they needed. We have about 1,000 households in Fingal with social housing tenants who are over 70 and a third that live alone.

It is a very challenging time for councils, and we have had to keep our revenue control strong. Therefore, making information accessible to all is necessary. Where you have a very elderly population, mainly using their phone, you must be willing to provide opportunities for people to engage through whatever means they can.

How have you engaged with your customers?

“We have about 1,000 households in Fingal with social housing tenants who are over 70 and a third that live alone”

I cannot stress how important communication and engagement is. Having information from as many sources as possible is very important. People are struggling to pay rent, mortgages, or have housing maintenance queries and other challenges made more difficult by COVID-19.

Our housing team put an enormous amount of effort into communications, using both on and off-line channels. Our housing staff reached out to tenants to help them navigate their different issues. It was also an opportunity to check in with our tenants to see how they were doing and if there were other services they needed. We have about 1,000 households in Fingal with social housing tenants who are over 70 and a third that live alone.

It is a very challenging time for councils, and we have had to keep our revenue control strong. Therefore, making information accessible to all is necessary. Where you have a very elderly population, mainly using their phone, you must be willing to provide opportunities for people to engage through whatever means they can.

What has been the impact on your house building programme?

We are fortunate to have a strong construction pipeline and so we had quite a lot of construction underway that was stalled when sites shut down due to COVID-19.

The key has been to work collaboratively with our partners – the Housing Agency, the Department of Housing and the Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office – to have six sites with a total of 91 homes that were nearing completion deemed essential sites. These are now completed and moving towards allocation to families on our housing list.

There is a lot of learning from these sites reopening with all sites active again. Hopefully this will ensure that we get back as fast as possible to delivering our construction programme and our Rebuilding Ireland targets, while ensuring public health guidance is followed in terms of social distancing and personal protective equipment (PPE).

What has been the impact on your house building programme?

We are fortunate to have a strong construction pipeline and so we had quite a lot of construction underway that was stalled when sites shut down due to COVID-19.

The key has been to work collaboratively with our partners – the Housing Agency, the Department of Housing and the Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office – to have six sites with a total of 91 homes that were nearing completion deemed essential sites. These are now completed and moving towards allocation to families on our housing list.

There is a lot of learning from these sites reopening with all sites active again. Hopefully this will ensure that we get back as fast as possible to delivering our construction programme and our Rebuilding Ireland targets, while ensuring public health guidance is followed in terms of social distancing and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Can you tell us a little more about how you worked with your development partners?

“Supporting the construction sector to get building is very important in terms of economic recovery. Local authorities are well placed to support this, not just through our enterprise offers, but equally from a joint-working perspective”

We have received tremendous support across the housing sector to get sites active. We moved very quickly to having successful virtual meetings. For example, the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH), co-ordinated a meeting between our Housing Team and Approved Housing Bodies active in Fingal to discuss priorities to get houses finished, construction re-established, lettings in place and mechanisms to overcome obstacles. There has been a real emphasis on the operational, and the “let’s get mobilised again and let’s get moving”.

Supporting the construction sector to get building is very important in terms of economic recovery. Local authorities are well placed to support this, not just through our enterprise offers, but equally from a joint-working perspective.

Can you tell us a little more about how you worked with your development partners?

“Supporting the construction sector to get building is very important in terms of economic recovery. Local authorities are well placed to support this, not just through our enterprise offers, but equally from a joint-working perspective”

We have received tremendous support across the housing sector to get sites active. We moved very quickly to having successful virtual meetings. For example, the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH), co-ordinated a meeting between our Housing Team and Approved Housing Bodies active in Fingal to discuss priorities to get houses finished, construction re-established, lettings in place and mechanisms to overcome obstacles. There has been a real emphasis on the operational, and the “let’s get mobilised again and let’s get moving”.

Supporting the construction sector to get building is very important in terms of economic recovery. Local authorities are well placed to support this, not just through our enterprise offers, but equally from a joint-working perspective.

How are you finding meetings with elected members and councillors?

We are still learning. There are a range of statutory processes that the elected members must authorise and approve. Our Corporate Services staff ran our first virtual council meeting which did not have any statutory processes on the agenda, but this did give us an opportunity to bring councillors up to date on what was happening and that worked well. We will continue with this virtual approach, while planning for statutory meetings to take place face-to-face.

How are you finding meetings with elected members and councillors?

We are still learning. There are a range of statutory processes that the elected members must authorise and approve. Our Corporate Services staff ran our first virtual council meeting which did not have any statutory processes on the agenda, but this did give us an opportunity to bring councillors up to date on what was happening and that worked well. We will continue with this virtual approach, while planning for statutory meetings to take place face-to-face.

Campbell Tickell recently launched a new manifesto centred around the concepts: Reimagining, Resilience and Recovery. Do you see any alignment with Fingal’s approach?

Right across the sector I think there is alignment with all of them! We may be living with this virus for a long time and I think it will change us. It will influence the quality of environment and access to services including housing services and how people want to live and work in their local communities, rather than commuting. As we re-imagine, we may be thinking of new living patterns and how we do this in a way that is not at the expense of quality.

Second, finances will be a big issue. Where will the funding come from? How will we manage it? The narrative now is that house prices will drop. COVID-19 response requirements may well increase the cost, yet if the sale price falls, it will be a big issue. Hopefully we can get back to a stable, functioning housing market as early as possible – we must think beyond the now and into the next few years.

Will we meet social housing targets? There is no doubt that construction delivery may well be down this year in terms of the numbers provided. However, there may be opportunities out there also. We are in a better place than the previous financial crash and have more options for developers to engage with us. We also have a better range of funding options. We are all looking at how to continue to provide and support housing delivery. We need to break the countercyclical approach of “there is no money so we can’t do anything”.

I am hopeful that there are opportunities to not only support mobilising construction again but to support the delivery of social and affordable housing. These could, at least, assist with maintaining prices and might help stabilise them.

Campbell Tickell recently launched a new manifesto centred around the concepts: Reimagining, Resilience and Recovery. Do you see any alignment with Fingal’s approach?

Right across the sector I think there is alignment with all of them! We may be living with this virus for a long time and I think it will change us. It will influence the quality of environment and access to services including housing services and how people want to live and work in their local communities, rather than commuting. As we re-imagine, we may be thinking of new living patterns and how we do this in a way that is not at the expense of quality.

Second, finances will be a big issue. Where will the funding come from? How will we manage it? The narrative now is that house prices will drop. COVID-19 response requirements may well increase the cost, yet if the sale price falls, it will be a big issue. Hopefully we can get back to a stable, functioning housing market as early as possible – we must think beyond the now and into the next few years.

Will we meet social housing targets? There is no doubt that construction delivery may well be down this year in terms of the numbers provided. However, there may be opportunities out there also. We are in a better place than the previous financial crash and have more options for developers to engage with us. We also have a better range of funding options. We are all looking at how to continue to provide and support housing delivery. We need to break the countercyclical approach of “there is no money so we can’t do anything”.

I am hopeful that there are opportunities to not only support mobilising construction again but to support the delivery of social and affordable housing. These could, at least, assist with maintaining prices and might help stabilise them.

Finally, how are you coping personally?

“Am I always positive? No. Just like everybody else, there are dark days when you wonder how we are going to get through”

I am coping because I have an excellent team behind me, who are really committed. Everybody has taken on new ways of working, new shifts, remote working and jobs.

But, am I always positive? No. Just like everybody else, there are dark days when you wonder how we are going to get through. I see it with my own staff. People have family who have been ill, whom they have lost, or who have on-going health issues. We all have, and I think that must be acknowledged.

Overall, everybody is so grateful to our nurses and doctors and support staff who are out there in the frontline. Right behind them are services like the local authorities, that keep the show on the road.

My own team have been simply wonderful over the last couple of months. I really hope that out of this, there is a strong recognition of the importance of the local authority services.

Finally, how are you coping personally?

“Am I always positive? No. Just like everybody else, there are dark days when you wonder how we are going to get through”

I am coping because I have an excellent team behind me, who are really committed. Everybody has taken on new ways of working, new shifts, remote working and jobs.

But, am I always positive? No. Just like everybody else, there are dark days when you wonder how we are going to get through. I see it with my own staff. People have family who have been ill, whom they have lost, or who have on-going health issues. We all have, and I think that must be acknowledged.

Overall, everybody is so grateful to our nurses and doctors and support staff who are out there in the frontline. Right behind them are services like the local authorities, that keep the show on the road.

My own team have been simply wonderful over the last couple of months. I really hope that out of this, there is a strong recognition of the importance of the local authority services.

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