Mr. Frank Curran:

As stated, I am chairman of the CCMA sub-committee on housing, building and land use and I am also chief executive of Wicklow County Council. I thank the committee for its invitation and look forward to assisting it in its pre-legislative scrutiny of the affordable housing Bill.

All local authorities, along with approved housing bodies, perform an extensive range of housing services, including a multibillion euro programme of new social housing construction across all parts of the country. In the ten-year period up to 2008, local authorities delivered more than 26,000 affordable homes and they have extensive experience and knowledge of affordable housing as a result.

While the emphasis over the past number of years has been on social housing delivery, local authorities welcome the new affordable housing Bill. Affordable housing delivers homes to middle-income earners facing housing affordability challenges. When built along with social housing units, it enhances the sustainability of these communities. The addition of cost-rental affordable housing to the delivery methods available to local authorities is also welcomed.

The majority of the Bill's provisions are amendments to Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. They relate to intended improvements in the areas of assessment of purchaser eligibility, scheme of priority, charging period and the role of the Land Development Agency. Other key provisions cover cost-rental and the affordable purchase shared equity scheme. The CCMA is of the opinion that measures in the Bill, in particular heads 3 to 8, inclusive, will give greater clarity and certainty to both local authorities and prospective purchasers.

The primary delivery mechanism enabling local authorities to deliver affordable housing is the serviced site fund. To date, funding of almost €188 million has been approved in principle in support of 38 infrastructure projects in 14 local authority areas, which will assist in the delivery of almost 4,000 more affordable homes. Of these 140 homes will be delivered this year, with an additional 700 in 2022 and a further 1,500 in 2023.

It is important to note that the serviced site fund is provided to support the cost of infrastructure associated with the construction of new affordable purchase homes on local authority lands. However, the financial ability of local authorities to deliver affordable housing at scale is dependent upon a simplified serviced site fund bridging the entire gap between the full cost of provision of housing by a local authority and the affordable selling price. The CCMA and the housing delivery co-ordination office are in discussions with the Department in this regard.

The timeframe for the delivery of such projects must accommodate detailed design, the consultation process, planning, procurement and construction. As with all large projects of this type, the nature and scale of the developments will generally evolve as plans are progressed by local authorities. The provision of affordable housing by local authorities utilising funding via a simplified serviced site fund will allow local authorities progress development of larger mixed-tenure housing schemes delivering social, affordable purchase and affordable rental housing.

However, it should also be pointed out that local authorities are still dealing with the legacy of previous affordable housing programmes before 2011. Currently local authorities have approximately 2,000 unsold affordable dwellings with associated unfunded costs of approximately €350 million. While all these dwellings are currently occupied as social housing units, these legacy issues require resolution.

Local authorities are currently assessing their remaining housing land banks and will be acquiring land over the next number of years upon which to further deliver social and affordable housing. Consideration is required on how best to fund these land purchases in order not to disproportionately impact on other local authority general services.

The CCMA is of the opinion that local authorities are best placed to assess the level of demand for affordable housing in their functional areas. It has been working with the Department on setting targets.

The CCMA welcomes the measures in the affordable housing Bill. Coupled with the serviced site fund, it will allow local authorities deliver affordable housing in conjunction with the other suite of measures in the programme for Government.