Written answers

Thursday, 1 December 2016

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Approved Housing Bodies

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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169. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if there is funding available to approved housing bodies to purchase houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38149/16]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Funding is available to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to deliver new social housing through the acquisition of houses as well as through new build projects. The funding schemes that support AHBs in this regard include the Capital Advance Leasing Facility scheme, the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme and the Capital Assistance Scheme. Some €1 billion in funding is available under these schemes between 2016 and 2021. AHBs wishing to develop new social housing proposals make contact with the relevant local authority in the first place. My Department is in ongoing contact with AHBs, both individually and collectively, in relation to these matters. There is already a strong pipeline of approved social housing projects for delivery by AHBs under my Department’s funding schemes and this is now bearing fruit. There are around 4,000 new social units approved for delivery by AHBs across the various funding streams, which will be completed over the coming years, and I am keen that they advance the delivery of these units and other build projects as soon as possible.

The Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness, recognises the key contribution that AHBs make to the delivery of housing supports in Ireland, building on their track record in terms of both housing provision and management. My Department also works with the AHB sector and with the Housing Agency which has been given responsibility, on an interim basis, for regulating AHBs. Only those AHBs that demonstrate compliance with the Voluntary Regulation Code (Building for the Future - A Voluntary Regulation Code for Approved Housing Bodies in Ireland) and with the AHB Financial Standard and Assessment Framework, having undergone a satisfactory assessment by the Regulation Office within the Housing Agency, are considered eligible for the above funding streams.

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