Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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214. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason his Department has not yet informed local authorities of the social housing budget for 2015; and the allocations for each local authority in tabular form comparing the 2015 allocation to that provided by his Department in 2010, 2011 and 2013. [2960/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Social housing is a key priority for Government, as evidenced by the additional €2.2 billion in funding announced for social housing in Budget 2015 and the publication of the Social Housing Strategy 2020in November 2014, which sets out clear, measureable actions and targets to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of households on the housing list.

The target to provide 35,000 new social housing units announced in the Strategy will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 targets the delivery of 18,000 additional housing units by the end of 2017 and phase 2, spanning the years 2018 to 2020, targets the delivery of 17,000 units.  The actions contained in the Strategy include the agreement by Q1 2015 of targets with local authorities for the delivery of social housing in 2015 and to initiate work on targets for subsequent years. The groups involved in overseeing the work on setting targets, namely the Dublin Social Housing Delivery Taskforce and the Social Housing Strategy Project Board, have met and commenced the process on setting targets with each local authority. The allocation of funding to local authorities, in the context of the increased funding now available, will be based on the targets that are set and the plans of individual authorities to deliver on those targets.

The main areas of social housing capital investment are the local authorities’ own social housing construction and acquisitions programme and the Capital Assistance Scheme, through which funding is provided to approved housing bodies via the local authorities. Expenditure under these programmes broken down by local authority for the years in question was as follows:

Local Authority Housing Construction and Acquisition Programme

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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215. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide details on the proposed off balance sheet funding mechanisms for the provision of social housing referred to in his Social Housing Strategy 2020, including timeframes for the establishment of each structure (details supplied); if the structures will be State-wide, regional or local authority-based; and when these mechanisms will commence funding of social housing building projects. [2961/15]

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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216. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department has an estimate or target for the total spend required to deliver all of the targets in his Social Housing Strategy 2020 from Government and non-Government sources including on balance sheet expenditure, off balance sheet expenditure, borrowed finance and private sector investment; if his Department has annual estimated targets of the total spend required to meet each of the yearly housing unit targets as set out in the strategy; and if so, if he will provide these in tabular form. [2962/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 215 and 216 together.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020,available at the link below, builds on the provisions contained in Budget 2015 and sets out clear, measureable 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.

The total targeted provision of over 110,000 social housing units, through the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units and meeting the housing needs of some 75,000 households through the Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme, will address the needs of the 90,000 households on the housing waiting list in full, with flexibility to meet potential future demand.

Pillar 1 of the Strategy targets the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units over the period to 2020. The cost to the Exchequer of building, acquiring, or leasing these 35,000 units over the period to 2020 is estimated to be €3.8bn.

Budget 2015 marked a significant change in the trajectory of social housing funding with an increase in 2015 of some €210m to €800m and provides a commitment to multi-annual funding envelopes for social housing with clear capital commitment over the period to 2017. Budget 2015 also provided that off-balance sheet and more sustainable forms of funding will come into operation, with the announcement of an extension to the NAMA Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a large scale Public Private Partnership (PPP) and a commitment to establish a Financial Vehicle. The Strategy provides a coherent policy and institutional framework within which these initiatives can be executed, connected and developed.

In 2015, I expect that 3,000 units will be provided through the leasing initiative; 1,000 vacant local authority units will be returned to use through a programme of refurbishment; with a further 1,400 units to be built or acquired by local authorities and approved housing bodies through the Social Housing Investment Programme and the Capital Assistance Scheme. In addition, a further 2,000 new Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) units will be delivered and 8,400 households will be assisted through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

Under the Strategy’s Governance structure, a dedicated Finance Working Group, with appropriate membership from within my own Department, the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Housing Finance Agency will progress the delivery of off sheet balance mechanisms within the time-frames outlined in the Strategy.

This Group will build on previous experience in developing off-balance sheet mechanisms such as the NAMA Special Purpose Vehicle and the National Asset Residential Property Service (NARPS) and will identify the necessary financial mechanisms which are capable of raising finance in a sustainable manner to ensure an appropriate supply of finance is available to support the provision of new social housing.