Seanad debates
Tuesday, 28 November 2023
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Housing Policy
1:00 pm
Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is very welcome. I thank him for taking this Commencement matter, which relates to the voids programme. Under the Housing for All action plan, each local authority was targeted by the Department to reduce vacancy rates within its council housing stock. Longford County Council was given a target of reducing its 2021 vacancy rate of 7.2% to 3.5% in 2023. This was an ambitious target that was set for the local authority but I know the council was fully committed to achieving it and significant progress has been made on achieving the target in recent years.
We have all heard about price inflation. I will give an example of some of the costs that have increased over the period. The Minister of State should be cognisant of the fact that the grant per house for retrofitting is €11,000. In 2020 the average cost expended was €20,865. In 2022, it was €35,926, which comprises an increase of 72% over the three-year period. In 2023, those costs are projected to be an average of €45,280, due in particular to construction costs inflation. That is coming not just from the local authority but also the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, who are the experts in this regard and are able to put forward those costs. The maximum reimbursement from the Department to the local authority is €11,000 per dwelling, with additional costs to be funded from the local authority's own resources.
To give an idea of the shortfall that has created for the local authority from 2021 to 2023, in 2021 the shortfall was €623,000; in 2022, it was €1.025 million and; the projected shortfall for 2023, based on delivering 71 houses back into stock, is €2.4 million. The reality is that it is not sustainable for any local authority to keep providing the services for taxpayers in Longford. We were the first local authority in the country to increase the local property tax, LPT by 15% in 2019, when we ring-fenced the funding for regeneration projects within the three districts in Longford. Others have followed. We locked in an increase of 15% for this year and for 2024. The elected members in the local authority increased the rates by 5% for this year, to bring in additional funding to help meet the rising costs that are being put on it. The reality is that we must take action if we want Longford County Council to hit its targets, which it is doing.I was at a meeting of the Oireachtas housing committee council officials attended last January. They were questioned by members of the committee and asked to come back in 12 months to show the council had reduced the number of voids, which it has done. It hit its targets at a severe cost to the local authority. Longford County Council needs to be reimbursed by the Department for those costs in order that we can maintain the other services delivered by the local authority at the standards we are entitled to. I would appreciate a positive reply from the Minister of State for members and the executive of Longford County Council and that funding will be put in place to cover those increased costs.
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar seo a chur faoi bhráid an tSeanaid. We know that vacancies arise on a daily basis in the approximately 146,000 social homes owned by local authorities. It is critical to the Government and Members of this House that such homes are refurbished and re-let to a family or individual on the waiting list as soon as possible.
Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities under the relevant Housing Acts to manage and maintain their housing stock, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides annual funding support to local authorities in preparing units for re-let under the voids programme. The emphasis of the programme is on minimum refurbishment works to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019, supporting quick turnaround and re-letting times, with all major works deferred and carried out under planned maintenance over the life cycle of the asset. Of note is Longford County Council's average re-let time of almost 100 weeks, as per the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, performance indicator 2022.
There is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent on an individual dwelling under the Department’s voids programme, providing the total amount averaged across all dwellings submitted by a local authority does not exceed €11,000. Where a local authority chooses to do works over and above those necessary to comply with the rental standards, it can impact re-let times and result in additional costs for the local authority. Additional funding is also available where turnaround times are not impacted as local authorities can complete the suite of works applicable to the energy efficiency retrofit programme on a vacant unit with funding up to a maximum of €48,850 available, meaning that, across both programmes of voids and energy efficiency, almost €60,000 is available.
Longford County Council has indicated that in some cases it has cost more to remediate to the minimal rental standards and it was not possible to complete energy upgrades under the retrofit programme. In this regard, officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have been in contact with Longford County Council in an effort to identify additional units and funding requirements to support the local authority to year end. A submission from the council was received and is being reviewed. A further response will issue to the council presently.
Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for what was a negative reply. Basically, the query I put concerns the fact that local authorities are being asked to deal with voids but they are not being compensated for the cost of doing so. The figure of €11,000 per house was decided in 2020. I have given the Minister of State figures on the increase in inflation, not just from the local authority but from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, an organisation that has put forward figures on the increased cost. It is only right that local authorities be compensated for bringing housing voids to the high standard demanded by the Department. Other services they provide to taxpayers should not be impacted.
The reply indicated that the Department will only consider additional units and will not compensate the local authority for the shortfall of some €3 million it must meet as a result of bringing houses up to the standard demanded by the Department. That is not fair.
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Since taking office, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Government have embarked on the largest voids programme ever undertaken. Funding was granted for 3,607 voids in 2020, 2,425 voids in 2021 and 2,307 voids in 2022. The target for this year is 2,300 voids. The funding provided has tackled a large number of long-term vacant stock and brought them thankfully back into use. It has enabled local authorities to get on top of the issue and pave the way for a transition to a radically different approach to local authority housing stock maintenance. This involves full stock condition service of all local authority homes within four to five years, which started in a number of local authorities in 2022; strategic and informed planned maintenance work programmes which will address shortcomings in homes occupied by the sitting tenants; and better value for money by tackling large numbers of homes in single contracts rather than home by home.
Funding of €5 million has been ring-fenced for local authorities to start, and in some cases continue, to transition from a largely response and voids-based approach to the maintenance of local authority housing stock to a planned maintenance approach based on planned work programmes informed by stock condition surveys.However, as acknowledged, the Department is working with the relevant local authority, Longford County Council, to support additional funding requirements this year.