Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

The Government's housing policy statement, published in June 2011, identifies approved housing bodies, AHBs, as key partners in the delivery of social housing. This recognises both the constrained funding levels available for local authority construction programmes and the capacity and track record of the voluntary and co-operative housing sector.

AHBs are uniquely placed to help drive the achievement of the housing supply responses set out in the policy statement. However, the move from capital-funded programmes of construction and acquisition by approved housing bodies to more revenue-funded options does present challenges for them. As such, I intend to develop an enabling regulatory framework for the sector that will provide support and assurance to both the sector and its external partners as the sector takes on the expanded role envisaged for it in the policy statement and to underline its status as a viable and attractive investment opportunity for financial institutions.

The development of such a regulatory framework which is both robust and harmonised with the varying capacities of individual AHBs will take some time. In the interim, my Department is actively working with the sector on the development of a voluntary code which I expect most bodies will endorse. This code, which should be finalised and agreed in the coming months, will serve as a learning opportunity for the sector and for my Department as we develop a longer-term statutory framework that will best support the enhanced role of AHBs.

In the shorter term, to assist in this transitional phase between fully capital-funded delivery programmes and greater reliance on borrowing, my Department's capital advance leasing facility, CALF, scheme allows approved housing bodies to apply for a capital equity injection to assist them to secure finance from financial institutions and the Housing Finance Agency for the purpose of acquiring or constructing dwellings for social housing purposes under the leasing initiative. Direct loan financing by financial institutions will be part of the Government's mortgage-to-rent pilot scheme under which the purchase of the property will be part loan financed using loan finance obtained from the initial mortgage provider.

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