Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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22. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in the aftermath of his welcome investment in the public housing programme, if that programme can be accelerated to provide substantially more housing accommodation in the short to medium term, if he will put a sequence of steps in place, in conjunction with the local authorities, to access off-balance-sheet recorded funding in each local authority area where major housing waiting lists currently exist, if he will put a strategic plan in place to drive the programme to a much greater extent than has been possible heretofore, by raising the house completion targets substantially on a monthly basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44099/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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In November 2014 the Government approved the Social Housing Strategy 2020 which sets out a strategic framework for meeting the State’s social housing needs to the end of the decade. The Strategy also 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 social housing list. The Strategy targets the delivery of 35,000 new units, to be delivered by local authorities and approved housing bodies, and 75,000 units in the private rental market to be delivered mainly under the Housing Assistance Payment Programme. The Strategy has been supported by two successive budgets with €1.7 billion allocated to housing to support the provision of over 33,000 units across both Capital and Current programmes. Given the pressing need to recommence a house building programme around €3 billion in capital funding will be provided in support of the Social Housing Strategy under the Government’s Capital Plan - Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021 .  

The commitment of on-going financial support has allowed the allocation of half a billion euro to local authorities and approved housing bodies for 2,900 new social housing units to be delivered by 2017.

The Strategy also 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. The financial vehicle will be established to facilitate the aggregation of private investment into a fund for subsequent lending as project finance. It is intended that this funding would be lent on to qualifying Approved Housing Bodies, giving them access to long term finance. In this regard, the Social Housing Strategy 2020 refers to the possibility of an Approved Housing Body being established by a local authority or among local authorities.

Work on the development of this new funding model is being progressed under the oversight of a group which has been put in place to develop the financial aspects of the Social Housing Strategy . This group - the Finance Work Stream - comprises a range of key stakeholders including my Department, the Housing Finance Agency, the National Development Finance Agency and the Departments of Finance and of Public Expenditure & Reform. The timing of the introduction of the new funding model will be dependent on the outcome of the group’s work.