John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Finneran. I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this important issue and I welcome, in particular, support for the temporary use of unsold affordable units to accommodate households in need of social housing.

In the first instance, it should be recognised that there will always be a certain level of stock of unsold affordable units on hands at any given time, whatever the prevailing housing market conditions. The slowdown in sales of affordable housing has moved in step with the process of correction in the wider housing market. Prices of affordable homes provided by local authorities under the various affordable housing schemes, including Part V, were typically priced at around 25% to 30% lower than market prices. As market prices fell - in some areas they fell rapidly - this differential has been eroded or cancelled completely. This, coupled with the very strong surge in delivery of affordable units in 2008, particularly under Part V, resulted in a significant increase in the stock of affordable housing units for sale by local authorities.

Early in 2009, it was estimated that approximately 3,700 units were available for purchase. However, by that time the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government had already begun working with local authorities and the affordable homes partnership to ensure that effective measures were in place. Last April, the Minister issued comprehensive guidance to local authorities which provided them with a wide range of options to ensure that unsold units would be brought into effective and early use.

While the priority was still to sell affordable homes to eligible purchasers, in circumstances where this provide to be impractical in current market conditions, housing authorities were asked to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the options for dealing with these properties, including their deployment for social housing purposes where appropriate and having regard to the principles of sustainable communities. Specific options put at the disposal of authorities in this regard include the sale of units under the incremental purchase scheme, use of the units to provide social housing supports for an initial period of five years or, in exceptional circumstances, the transfer of unsold affordable units into permanent social housing stock.

Since that guidance was issued, considerable progress has been made on both sales of affordable homes with, despite the difficult economic and banking climate, over 1,300 affordable homes sold in the first nine months of 2009, and the deployment of a further 1,300 unsold affordable homes for other purposes, including temporary use under the social leasing or rental accommodation schemes. As a result, the number of units on hands has now come down to just over 1,000. This excludes those which are in the process of being sold or which have been earmarked for use for other housing purposes. Local authorities with remaining stock on hands - including Cork County Council with a total of 135 units remaining unsold - are actively considering the options available to them to bring these units into use as soon as possible. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is also considering the feasibility of introducing a rent-to-buy scheme in a small number of local authority areas.

The comprehensive range of options introduced last year has achieved considerable success. The immediate focus for affordable housing is on carrying forward those measures to ensure the most effective deployment of the remaining unsold stock. This will continue to be informed by the need to match existing vacant stock with the needs of those requiring housing supports, whether affordable or social.

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