Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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2072. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide a list of all Part V housing units funded by his Department in the past 12 months, by housing development listing; the number of units in each development; and the cost to his Department for units on each development, in tabular form. [38929/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 made a number of amendments to Part V of the Act, following the outcome of an independent review, which included a consultation process. The amendments, effective from 1 September 2015, sought to maximise the contribution Part V can make to social housing supply and sustainable mixed-tenure communities across the country.

A principal change was the reduction in the requirement from 20% to 10%. This reduction needs to be considered together with other amendments which reduced the options contained in section 96 for the delivery of units within a Part V agreement. The payment of cash in lieu of units or the transfer of sites or parts of sites was removed, and instead the remaining options are focused on the delivery of completed units. The current options for Part V delivery are:

- the transfer of ownership of land, subject to the planning permission application, to a local authority for the provision of social housing remains the default option as is currently the case;

- the transfer of ownership to the local authority, or persons nominated, of completed social housing units on other land. There is no longer a requirement for the developer to build housing units on other land to fulfil his/her Part V obligations;

- the Part V obligation can now be fulfilled by developers through long term leasing of properties; and

- a combination of the Part V options above is also allowed.

The provision of land rather than houses remains the default position if the developer wishes to exercise that option. The other principle change is that with effect from 1 September 2015, any relevant planning permission granted must contain a condition that the Part V agreement be entered into prior to the lodging of a commencement notice. This is a significant change, which should frontload the delivery of social housing units to the local authority.

The Department supports local authorities and approved housing bodies to acquire these units through the provision of capital assistance under the Social Housing Capital Investment Programme (SHCIP),  Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) and also provides a mechanism for the long-term leasing of Part V units under the Social Housing Current Expenditure programme (SHCEP). As such, there is no one dedicated funding scheme for Part V units. 

It should be noted that some developments completed in 2016/2017 may have been subject to older Part V agreements made before 1 September 2015, when other options - such as a financial contribution, the provision of fully or partially serviced sites or the provision of land elsewhere in the functional area of the planning authority - were available. Therefore it should be understood that because the Part V units currently being delivered may originate from either developments under old permissions/ agreements or new agreements, costs differ and an average cost would not be indicative.

Details on the number of social housing properties constructed, purchased and leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies, for letting to those on their social housing waiting lists, are published on my Department’s website at the following link: . Information is currently being finalised in respect of quarter one of 2017 and will be published shortly, with information on quarter two 2017 to follow thereafter. Specific data relating to 2016 social housing output arising from Part V agreements will be available on my Department's website shortly.