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CT in Ireland: challenges and solutions
CT has been working in Northern Ireland since 2011 and the Republic since 2013. We have come to understand intimately the presenting issues and what the ranges of solutions might be.
GROWTH, REGENERATION & DEVELOPMENT
Greg Campbell
Partner, Campbell Tickell
John McClean
Chief Executive, Radius Housing
Issue 80 | October 2025
When it comes to delivering consultancy projects and advisory services, what do clients find valuable? One important aspect is being able to take the learning and insights on what works – or doesn’t – in one locality and set of circumstances, and see how this learning can be translated for the benefit of other organisations in other places, facing somewhat different challenges.
Ireland – whether South or North – is no different. And over time, CT has been able to bring that learning from other jurisdictions to help address particular issues there. Conversely, the learning we have gained and the approaches we have adopted in our work in Ireland has often proven of value for clients in the UK or Europe.
Sector-wide significance
CT has been working in Northern Ireland since 2011 and the Republic since 2013. Over this period, we have come to understand intimately the presenting issues and what the ranges of solutions might be. Not of course that this has been about importing solutions from elsewhere – after all key members of our teams working on Irish assignments are based locally and thoroughly familiar with the environments, the drivers, the challenges.
Much of our work has been influential. Some of it has been of sector-wide significance. In the Republic, under the former voluntary regulatory code, we worked with the housing regulator to develop all three standards for AHBs, covering finance, governance and performance. We worked with the Irish Council for Social Housing to review aspects of the AHB sector and undertake research with the aim of developing a strategic financial roadmap to enable AHBs to continue to deliver social, affordable and supported housing at scale in accordance with the government’s Housing for All action plan. The report Building on success: a financial roadmap for AHBs was launched at the ICSH Conference in October 2022.
Collaborating on best practice
We worked with the Housing Agency and several county councils to identify and develop best practice in managing voids and allocations, with the aim of achieving quicker turnarounds. We supported the Irish Refugee Council to explore alternatives to direct provision. We have advised The Housing Alliance on strategy, governance, and AHB sector classification. And we have assisted the Dublin Region Homeless Executive on a homelessness action plan.
In the round then, our work in the South has been with the great majority of large AHBs, and many medium sized and smaller organisations, while we have also worked with a number of local authorities, as well as key government and sector bodies.
In the North too, we have conducted work of sectoral significance, starting with a review of major overspends in maintenance contracts by firms engaged by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which received considerable attention at the Northern Ireland Assembly. We have also worked with NIHE on matters such as a review of temporary accommodation and development of a strategic action plan. During the pandemic, we co-ordinated liaison between Northern Ireland’s 38 homeless accommodation providers and statutory services. We previously advised the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations on sector classification. And last year, we supported the Department for Communities with a review of the regulatory framework for registered housing associations.
Again we have worked with the great majority of NI housing associations, as well as government and sector bodies.
A range of support
Ireland then - South and North - continues to be an important area of CT’s activity, and our team have been working across the island on a huge range of projects: governance, strategy, regulation, merger, finance and business planning, executive recruitment, human resources, performance improvement, housing and tenancy management, property asset management, regeneration and more.
