Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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159. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department has estimated the number of units to be bought by councils from developers, and the number to be leased under the new Part V rules, to be contained in the forthcoming Planning and Development (No. 1) Bill; the increases he is allocating to the capital and current budgets of local authorities to cover the costs involved; and his Department's estimate of the average purchase price of houses and apartments to be bought under the new Part V scheme. [15831/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Under the existing Part V provisions, developers are required to ensure that up to 20% of land zoned for residential and other uses, shall be reserved for social or affordable housing. However, with the substantial fall off in private construction, very little social housing is currently being provided under Part V. Informed by a recent review of the Part V provisions, which included a public consultation process, my Department has incorporated the required legislative changes into the General Scheme of the Planning and Development (No 1) Bill which was published in November 2014 and is available on my Department’s website at: .

The General Scheme of the Bill was the subject of pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht. The Bill is currently being drafted in consultation with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel with a view to publication in the coming weeks and enactment before the summer recess.

The General Scheme provides that, in future, the focus of Part V will be on the delivery of social housing, with a requirement for up to 10% social housing in developments in excess of 9 units.  In the operation of these revised Part V arrangements, the priority will be to secure social housing units on-site; the making of cash payments in lieu of social housing is to be discontinued.

The changes to the Part V provisions that are proposed are an important component of the range of delivery mechanisms that will help to achieve the targets set out in the Government’s Social Housing Strategy 2020 – Support, Supply and Reform. It is estimated that in the region of 4,000 additional social housing units will be delivered by 2020 under the revised Part V provisions, using a range of delivery options including leasing mechanisms. My Department has written to local authorities highlighting the importance of ensuring that Part V agreements are discharged in ways that maximise the potential for the immediate delivery of social housing units. I am committed to the principle of a social housing gain from private development and I believe that the Part V mechanism has the potential to be a significant contributor to social housing in the context of a recovering housing market.

It is not possible to estimate either the precise number of units that may become available under Part V or their cost. In targeting the supply of 35,000 additional social housing units under the Social Housing Strategy 2020 over the next 6 years, including units under Part V, the Government has estimated the total cost to the Exchequer at €3.8 billion. The substantial additional funding provided through Budget 2015 will provide the required kick start to the delivery of the targets in the Strategy and I am confident that my recent announcement of over €1.5 billion for the delivery of the targets out to 2017 will meet the full delivery cost of these units. The scale of ambition represented in these targets and the accompanying funding allocations illustrate that housing is of the highest priority for this Government.

My Department monitors build and acquisition costs of housing on an ongoing basis and data on house prices is amongst the range of housing statistics which are available on my Department ’s website at the following link: