Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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662. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of homes that have been acquired for social housing under initiatives such as the repair and leasing scheme; the amount spent on this in tabular form; the number of units in the next 12 months to be delivered under the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31149/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department has introduced a range of schemes to provide local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) with the capacity to utilise existing vacant stock for social housing use.  In particular, the Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) is targeted at owners of vacant properties who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their properties up to the required standard for rental property.

In recognition of both the critical demand for units and the potential the RLS has to offer, an additional €26m was assigned to fund the scheme in 2017, which brings the total amount available this year to €32m. This additional investment in 2017 means that delivery under the scheme can be accelerated and up to 800 vacant properties can be brought back into use as new homes for families on local authority waiting lists this year.

Individual targets have been communicated to each local authority to ensure that the objective of 800 units for 2017 is achieved, and local authorities have been provided with delegated authority to enter into contractual arrangements in respect of that number of units. If a local authority is in a position to secure more units through the scheme than their target, this is welcomed and funding will be provided accordingly. The RLS targets for each local authority are set out in tabular form below. 

My Department will be closely monitoring this activity to ensure that the scheme works well; that the funding available is utilised effectively; and ultimately, that new social houses are delivered using the scheme in 2017.  The progress of individual local authorities will be reported later in the year. 

The Buy and Renew Scheme is also available to local authorities to complement the Repair & Leasing scheme, allowing local authorities and AHBs to approach owners of vacant, privately-owned houses in need of repair or remediation, with the option to either lease and repair, or to buy and repair, the unit.  An initial €25 million has been made available in 2017 and may be increased to as much as €50 million in 2018, which should result in at least 400 - 500 renewed houses – or a greater number if costs per unit prove reasonable.

In addition in 2017, a capital fund of €70m is being provided to the Housing Agency to establish a revolving fund to acquire some 1,600 units over the period to 2020 for social housing use.  The fund will be replenished by the Agency through the sale of units primarily to the Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector. 

This is intended to be a short term to medium term initiative, targeting the vacant property portfolios of financial institutions and investment companies and is a direct response to the current shortage that would be designed to complement, not displace, ongoing targeted acquisition activity by local authorities and AHBs.

Under Actions 2.5 and 5.6 of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Housing Agency continues to actively and positively engage with banks and investment companies in relation to its acquisitions programme to deliver on the overall target of acquiring some 1,600 units by 2020.  In that context, since the launch of Rebuilding Ireland in July 2016 and as of 31 May 2017, the Agency has accepted bids on 489 dwellings from a range of vendors.  Of these, the Agency has signed contracts for 379 dwellings and 225 of these purchases have closed.  Bids are pending on a further 18 dwellings.

2017 RLS Targets per Local Authority