James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Séamus McGrath for taking this question on the increase in social housing availability on behalf of Deputy Willie O'Dea.

Since the beginning of 2022, Government has supported the delivery of 35,163 new social homes across thousands of individual projects funded through build, acquisition and leasing programmes. Building on progress made to date, delivering homes, building communities includes a wide range of measures to accelerate new-build social housing delivery to an average of 12,000 new-build social homes a year between 2025 and 2030.

To incentivise local authorities to deliver more own-build projects, a new performance fund will be established. Where a local authority exceeds its own-build target, it will receive additional discretionary funding for the delivery of community and placemaking initiatives and projects. In addition, ring-fenced new-build housing delivery teams in each local authority dedicated to own-build new social and affordable housing delivery will be fully funded by my Department through reimbursement to local authorities on a performance-pay basis.

The new single-approval process for all new-build social housing projects up to a value of €200 million will support local authorities to streamline processes and encourage delivery of larger new-build social housing developments. The land acquisition fund will be reformed, streamlined and expanded to ensure it is fit for purpose and can support the level of ambition in the plan. To this end, the fund will also be increased from the current €239 million to at least €500 million. I will establish a revamped contractor-led renewal programme which will afford opportunities for local tradespersons and contractors to work with local authorities and approved housing bodies to tackle vacancy and dereliction and increase social housing supply.

Delivering homes, building communities will further support additional social housing delivery by mandating the use of standard house layouts and specifications as part of the new approval process and facilitate the use of modern methods of construction, MMC, through a standardised design approach. To further promote the delivery of social housing, I will embed the use of a design-and-build-contract approach in all local authorities and the AHB sector in order to expedite the delivery of social homes.

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