Written answers

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Housing Issues

Photo of Terence FlanaganTerence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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223. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is encouraging foreign investors to build new homes in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55010/13]

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The provision of new homes generally, other than those provided for social housing, involve commercial considerations in which I, as Minister with responsibility for social housing, have no direct function. Investment in housing for private sale is primarily a matter for the market. My Department is in the process of assessing the amount of residentially zoned undeveloped land in the Dublin area, and in the rest of the country, as part of the Housing Land Availability Survey. Through this exercise, and the implementation of the National Spatial Strategy, Regional Planning Guidelines and local authority plans, I believe that the planning process is in a good position to respond to all investment initiatives in the housing sector.

In terms of social housing provision, the Government's housing policy statement, published in June 2011, clearly identifies that the priority for Government is to meet the most acute needs of households applying for social housing support in all local authority areas. I am determined to ensure that the social housing programme is optimised in terms of resources and focus to maximise the response to social housing need. This must be achieved in a context in which public expenditure necessarily continues to be constrained. Nonetheless, in July 2012 I announced details of a three-year funding programme of €100 million to deliver some 800 new units of voluntary and local authority owned social housing.

In addition to the €525.8 million in housing programme expenditure provided for in my Department's Abridged Estimate for 2014, Budget 2014 provides a further €50 million to fund infrastructural investment primarily in the housing area, including €30 million for the State house building programme; €10 million for an unfinished housing estate resolution project; and an additional €10 million for housing adaptation grants. When this is taken into account, funding for housing for next year is effectively maintained at 2013 levels.

Delivery of social housing continues to be significantly facilitated through more flexible funding models such as the Rental Accommodation Scheme and leasing but the Government is also committed to developing other funding mechanisms that will increase the supply of permanent new social housing. Such mechanisms include options to purchase, build to lease and the sourcing of loan finance by approved housing bodies for construction and acquisition. In addition, my Department and the Housing Agency are engaged with NAMA to ensure continued delivery of housing units for social purposes. Approved Housing Bodies will also play a key role in 2014 in the delivery of social housing and in particular in their capacity to attract external financial investment.

In spite of our challenging economic circumstances, I expect the final output across all social housing programmes for 2013 to be in the region of 5,000 new housing units, and it is provisionally estimated that in the region of 5,000 units will also be provided for social housing in 2014.

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