Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

422. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government her plans to provide social housing in the north west region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8504/16]

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

The Social Housing Strategy 2020is a target-driven plan of action to increase the supply of social housing by 110,000 additional units in the period to 2020, with 35,000 new units to be delivered by local authorities and approved housing bodies and 75,000 households to be supported mainly through the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme. The Strategy has been supported by two successive budgets, with €1.7 billion allocated to social housing in 2015 and 2016. The Social Housing Strategy 2020is available on my Department’s website at the following link: /

Given the pressing need to recommence a house building programme, almost €3 billion in capital funding will be provided in support of the Social Housing Strategy 2020through the Government’s Capital Plan - Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021. The Capital Plan is available at the following link: .

In April 2015, as part of the implementation of the Social Housing Strategy 2020, I announced over €1.5 billion in funding allocations in respect of social housing to be provided by all local authorities for the period out to 2017, via a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes. Those allocations and associated targets for each local authority, including those in the North West region, are available on my Department’s website at the following link: .

Following this notification of targets, I made announcements for substantial new social housing projects in May 2015, in July 2015 and in January 2016. Between these three announcements, almost €680 million has been allocated for over 3,900 social housing new builds, turnkey developments and acquisitions. Details of these project approvals, including those for the North West region, are available on my Department’s website at the following links:

.

.

.

I am keen that local authorities advance these projects as soon as possible and have assured them that funding is available to fully support their efforts in this regard.

Furthermore, the implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a key Government priority and a major pillar of the Social Housing Strategy 2020. There are now over 8,500 households in receipt of HAP and the scheme has been rolled out to all categories of households in 19 local authority areas including Donegal, Sligo and Mayo.

Over 13,000 social housing units were delivered in 2015, the first full year of implementation of the Strategy. This represents an 86% increase in unit delivery above 2014. It was achieved in a very difficult operating environment and represents a good start to the Strategy’s implementation. The targets for 2016 are again ambitious and I expect that over 17,000 social housing units will be provided this year.

In January, in collaboration with the Housing Agency, I published the Social Housing Output in 2015report, detailing how the 13,000 units were delivered across all the social housing programmes in 2015. The report, together with data on the breakdown of output, across all social housing delivery programmes, by local authority, including those in the North West region, is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

.

Social housing cannot be viewed in isolation from the wider housing system. The construction, and particularly residential construction, industry in Ireland is taking time to recover from the economic downturn and consequently supply from that sector is lagging significantly behind demand. Private market housing is currently delivering circa 50% of the estimated annual requirement of 25,000 dwellings nationally.

Laying the Foundations: Housing Actions Report, which was published on 14 April 2016, provides further information on thirty-one major actions taken across the housing spectrum since mid-2014 to increase the supply of housing, including social housing. The report is available on my Department’s website at .