Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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541. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a breakdown by local authority area of the number of new social homes that are targeted to be built by local authorities in 2015 and 2016; the number that are projected to be built by private developers under the proposed planning (No.1) Bill; and the number under public-private partnerships. [3740/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Social Housing Strategy 2020 – Support, Supply and Reform, published in November 2014, sets out clear, measurable actions and targets to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of households on the housing list. Actions 1 and 4 of the Strategy require the agreement of national targets for delivery of social housing across local authorities in 2015 and in subsequent years.

In 2015, I expect that some 7,400 new social housing units will be provided, broken down as follows:

- 1,400 units to be built or acquired by local authorities and approved housing bodies;

- 3,000 units under the Social Housing Leasing Initiative;

- 1,000 vacant local authority units will be returned to use; and,

- 2,000 new Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) units.

In addition, a further 8,400 households will be assisted through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

Over the following 2 years, 2016 and 2017, I envisage that some 13,500 additional new units will be provided and an extra 20,000 households will also be accommodated through HAP. The Project Board responsible for oversight of the delivery of actions and targets under the Social Housing Strategy, and the Dublin Social Housing Delivery Taskforce have each agreed a process on setting social housing delivery targets. Consultation with individual Local Authorities is now taking place.

The Strategy envisages that the standard availability-based design, build, finance and maintain (DBFM) Public Private Partnership (PPP) 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 Social Housing Strategy,an Oversight Group, which I Chair, will oversee the delivery of the 37 actions. Action 8 sets a target of delivering 1,500 units via PPP by the end of 2017. The Project Board will ensure that all actions are progressed under the 5 work streams identified in the Strategy. A separate Group has been established to progress the delivery of actions under each work stream. The detailed work on the PPP proposal will be progressed with the benefit of the expertise of the Group responsible for Work Stream 1 - Finance.

In October 2014, I announced major reforms of the planning system as part of the forthcoming Planning and Development (No.1). The Review of Part V of the Planning and Development Acts has been completed. The legislative changes required on foot of the Review have been incorporated into the General Scheme of the Bill which was published in November 2014 and is available on my Department’s website at:

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The General Scheme of the Bill is currently the subject of pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht. The Bill is currently being drafted with a view to enactment in 2015.

The new Part V proposals will require developers to provide up to 10% of their housing units for social housing and the legislation will remove the ability of developers to account for their social housing commitments through cash payments to local authorities. The proposals will furthermore ensure that the social housing units will be located predominantly on the site of the original developments. Under these plans, it is estimated that in the region of 4,000 additional social housing units will be delivered through the Part V mechanism by 2020.