Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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438. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government regarding the approved housing bodies taking an expanded role in social housing delivery; if he will be putting in place more comprehensive transfer policies to allow for families that grow in size from when they are first allocated homes. [47188/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Social Housing Strategy 2020: Support, Supply and Reform sets out clear, measurable actions and targets to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of all households on the housing list. Central to the Government’s vision for the provision of social housing supports will be an enhanced role for the approved housing bodies in the provision of new supply.

In committing to provide 35,000 new social housing units, at a projected cost of €3.8 billion, the Strategy marks a fresh start for social housing in Ireland.Importantly,the Strategy restores the State to a central role in the provision of social housing through a resumption of direct building on a significant scale, primarily by local authorities and approved housing bodies.

The Strategy also includes a commitment to review allocations policy generally in 2015, which will include the development of a standardised transfer policy. Currently tenants of approved housing bodies are entitled to apply to the relevant housing authority for a transfer to another dwelling in accordance with the authority’s allocation scheme. Under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, all housing authorities are required to make an allocation scheme determining the order of priority to be accorded in the allocation of dwellings to households qualified for social housing support and to households in receipt of such support who have been approved for a transfer to another dwelling provided by a local authority or approved housing body.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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439. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide the details of new PPPs that he proposes will play a role in the new social housing strategy. [47189/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Government's Social Housing Strategy 2020envisages that the standard availability-based design, build, finance and maintain (DBFM) Public Private Partnership model will be used as a basis for the delivery of a large-scale social housing investment, delivering social housing units in multiple locations and procured within the same public contract. The model proposed has been used to build a number of national roads and 23 schools in Ireland and is also being used to deliver primary health care centres and a programme of new and refurbished courthouses. This considerable experience will be used to ensure that the housing PPP can deliver significant scale, value for money for the State and a return for investors.

Under the detailed governance arrangements outlined in the Strategy an Oversight Group, which I will Chair, will oversee delivery of the 37 actions. A project board will ensure that all actions are progressed and 5 work streams will carry out the necessary work on particular actions. One such work stream will deal with finance and it will carry out the detailed work on the PPP proposal, bringing together the relevant expertise required.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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440. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government regarding the social housing leasing initiative that he proposes will play a larger role in the delivery of social housing, if he will provide full details of this initiative; the length of these leases; the number of landlords he expects to take part in this scheme; and the details of all negotiations with landlords in this regard. [47190/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Social Housing Leasing Initiative (SHLI), introduced in 2009, is a continuation of a process commenced with the introduction of the Rental Accommodation Scheme to develop a system of flexible and graduated housing supports to households.

To date, under SHLI, my Department has issued approval for over 8, 400 housing units to be brought into social housing use. Of the units approved for leasing, over 5 ,500 are tenanted or in the process of being tenanted. A further 1,500 units have received full funding approval and negotiations and legal agreements are being finalised.The remaining units are at approval in principle stage.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020, which I launched recently, contains a number of actions to reform the delivery and management of social housing and one such action will be to increase the delivery of accommodation through the leasing initiative.

Since the initiative was announced in 2009, SHLI has expanded on a number of occasions to provide for new types of supply and to involve a wider range of agencies and bodies in delivering or managing leased accommodation. In that context housing units are acquired in a number of ways and through a variety of sources. As well as the direct leasing of units by local authorities and approved housing bodies, units can also be purchased by approved housing bodies using capital advances and payment and availability agreements, or by entering into mortgage-to-rent arrangements.The units delivered through SHLI are also sourced from a variety of sources including those provided by NAMA, units leased or purchased from the private market, and the use of unsold affordable dwellings held by local authorities to accommodate households in need of social housing support.

In respect of units leased through the Scheme, individual l ease agreements can vary from 6 months to 30 years depending on the need in the area, type of agreement being used and the specific local authority requirements.

While my Department provides funding to local authorities and approved housing bodies to facilitate the scheme, negotiations with property owners to enter into lease agreements in respect of individual units or groups of units are undertaken by the local authority or approved body, subject to the general terms and conditions of the scheme.