Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1434. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the steps being taken, including financial initiatives, to improve housing supply for qualified applicants for social housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31223/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Social housing is a key priority for the Government, evidenced by the additional €2.2 billion in funding announced for it in Budget 2015 and the publication of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 in November 2014. The Strategy targets the provision of over 110,000 social housing units to 2020, 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. This will address the needs of all households on the housing waiting list, with flexibility to meet potential future demand. The Strategy also includes a commitment to increase the regularity of the Summary of Social Housing Assessments by undertaking it on annual basis from 2016 onwards, which will support the continuous monitoring of social housing delivery against need.

On 1 April 2015, I announced provisional funding allocations totalling €1.5 billion for all local authorities, to meet an ambitious delivery target of 22,882 social housing units out to 2017. Details of the individual targets set for local authorities can be found on my Department’s website at:

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To date in 2015 some €493 million has been allocated, to local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, for the construction and acquisition of over 2,900 units, fulldetails of which can be found on my Department’s website at the following links:

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In addition, over €91 million worth of housing investment, across a range of housing schemes to bring vacant social housing units back into productive use and to improve housing for people with disabilities, as well as retrofitting homes to improve energy efficiency, was announced in May 2015. Full details of the allocations made to local authorities are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Further announcements, in relation to project approvals, in line with the Strategy targets, will be made in due course.

The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), a key component of the Strategy, is also progressing at pace, with almost 4,000 households now in receipt of HAP across the local authority areas taking part in the statutory pilot scheme. HAP is now available to all qualified households in 13 local authority areas. Consideration is currently being given to the sequencing of a further cohort of local authorities to commence HAP in the coming months.

With regard to financial initiatives, the Strategy includes a commitment to commence work on a financial vehicle, to be known as the Strategic Housing Fund, to raise funding for the social housing sector.  Work on the development of this new funding model has commenced and is being progressed under the Finance Work Stream of the Strategy’s governance structure. This group, which has been put in place to develop the financial aspects of the Strategy, is chaired by my Department and comprises a range of key stakeholders including the Housing Finance Agency, the National Development Finance Agency and the Departments of Finance and of Public Expenditure & Reform.

Arising from the opportunity offered by the Strategy, a range of developers, investors, financiers and others expressed interest in being involved in the provision of social housing. A protocol was put in place in March 2015 under the auspices of the Finance Work Stream to facilitate individuals and entities seeking to engage with the State to provide investment for the delivery of social housing. A single point of contact for submitting proposals, the Social Housing Proposals Clearing House Group has been established, operating through my Department, under the oversight of the Finance Work Stream.  Interested parties may contact the Clearing House at .

The Strategy also provides for a €300 million programme of investment in social housing via the Public Private Partnership model, which is expected to deliver 1,500 housing units; work is advancing with site selection well underway.

Finally, the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, a key deliverable for my Department under Construction 2020, was commenced with effect from 1 September 2015. The Act revises Part V arrangements on social and affordable housing to maximise the opportunity for the delivery of social housing units and also secure the principle of integrated mixed tenure developments. Importantly, the practice of developers making cash payments in lieu of housing units is no longer an option under the new legislation.