Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Government’s housing policy statement of June 2011 acknowledged the capacity and track record of the voluntary and co-operative housing sector, and placed approved housing bodies, AHBs, at the heart of its vision for social housing provision. My Department is currently in consultation with the AHB sector regarding the development of a regulatory framework to support the expanded role for the sector as envisaged in the 2011 statement. This framework will provide support and assurance to tenants, the boards of AHBs and their external partners that the sector is well regulated. It will also safeguard the investment that has been made in the sector and encourage future investment.

A significant first step in this regard was taken with the publication on 15 July 2013 of "Building for the Future", a voluntary regulation code for the sector that is available on my Department’s website at . The code sets out key governance, management and financial principles that AHBs commit to meeting on signing a charter of commitments. To date, just over 130 AHBs have signed up to the code.

My Department, together with the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency and the Housing Finance Agency, is currently working with the sector to define more detailed financial benchmarks to which AHBs seeking private financial investment could also sign up. In the meantime, it remains open to AHBs to apply for external funding whether that be from the Housing Finance Agency or from private lenders. Seven bodies have been certified by the HFA as eligible for loan finance with approximately €40 million in loans approved. I understand that the committee of which Deputy Murphy is a member also met with the HFA.

In February this year I announced the establishment of an interim regulatory committee for the sector to oversee the implementation of the code and to advise on the development of statutory regulation. The committee includes experts in regulation, housing, law and finance and has been constituted as an independent committee operating for the time being within the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency.

Implementation of the voluntary code will be a valuable source of information about the scope and final content of the proposed statutory regulatory framework to be developed by 2016. In addition, there will be widespread consultation, in the normal way, during the development of the new legal framework.

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