Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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247. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if the 4% rent limits included as the new rent pressure zones apply to the rental accommodation scheme, housing assistance payment, SCHEP lease and approved housing body tenancies. [8110/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Rent Predictability Measure provided for in the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016, applies to tenancies supported by the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) as these tenancies are governed by the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2009.

Under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) local authorities enter into long-term lease or availability agreements which can range from 10 to 30 years with private property owners and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to secure units for social housing purposes. The Residential Tenancies Acts do not apply to these types of contracts and therefore the Rent Predictability Measure does not apply to these arrangements. However, the limiting effect the Measure will have on market rent inflation will impact positively on costs from a local authority perspective in the context of the periodic rent reviews that form part of the SHCEP contractual arrangements. Where a dwelling the subject of a SHCEP lease or availability agreement is subsequently let by a housing authority or an approved housing body to a social housing tenant, the tenant is charged a differential rent.

Sections 19 to 22 of the 2004 Act, which include provision for the Rent Predictability Measures, do not apply to AHB tenancies. Three new sections, sections 19A, 20A and 22A, were inserted into the 2004 Act by the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 to provide for the setting of rents and rent reviews in AHB tenancies. Section 19A provides for the setting of rent in AHB tenancies; section 20A provides for reviews of rent in AHB tenancies; and section 22A provides for the notification of a change in the amount of rent following a review under section 20A. In general, Approved Housing Bodies use the differential rent scheme applied by local authorities to determine the rents of their dwellings.