Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The new incremental tenant purchase scheme for existing local authority houses came into operation on 1 January 2016 in accordance with the provisions of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 and the Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015.

The scheme is open to tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the scheme, and who have been in receipt of social housing support for a minimum period of one year and who have a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum. There is no target set for the number for the sales of local authority houses under this scheme.

It is now a matter for each housing authority to administer the new scheme in its operational area in line with the provisions of the aforementioned legislation. In this regard, information in respect of tenant incremental purchase in the Dublin City Council area will be available from the Council.

To date, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme has been introduced incrementally on a pilot basis to 19 local authority areas, with over 6,900 households being supported by the scheme across those local authority areas. Dublin City Council is also implementing a HAP pilot scheme for homeless households in the Dublin region on behalf of all four Dublin local authorities. The Social Housing Strategy 2020sets a target for an additional 10,000 households to be supported by HAP by the end of 2016.