Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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265. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the €26 million allocated to repair and leasing initiative as outlined in budget 2018; the amount has been spent; the way in which the money has been spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27243/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS), as well as the Buy and Renew Scheme, has been developed to assist private property owners and local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to harness the accommodation potential that exists in certain vacant dwellings across Ireland.

The RLS is targeted at owners of vacant dwellings, who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their dwellings up to the required standard for rental property. Subject to the suitability of the dwelling for social housing, and the agreement of the property owner, the cost of the necessary repairs will be met upfront by the local authority or an approved housing body (AHB).

Data for end Q1 2018 is currently being collated and will be available shortly. However, at the end of 2017, a total of 820 applications had been received under the scheme. Local authorities were engaging with the property owners in relation to 573 properties, 31 agreements for lease had been signed and 9 homes had been delivered and tenanted. A detailed breakdown of the RLS scheme data up to end Q4 2017 is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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It is clear from the end 2017 output that RLS has not yet delivered the level of new social housing homes envisaged. I have reviewed the operation of the scheme, as part of the review of Rebuilding Ireland, and I have concluded that the scheme has significant potential but there are areas where it can be improved to make it more attractive and effective. At the second Housing Summit held on 22 January 2018, I announced a number of key changes to the scheme which took effect from 1 February 2018. These include:

- a reduction in the minimum lease term required from 10 to 5 years;

- an increase in the proportion of market rent available to property owners where they take on more responsibilities under the tenancy, meaning that up to 92% of market rent will be available; and

- provision of additional funding for property owners, over and above the current €40,000 limit, where the dwelling is a bedsit type dwelling being brought into compliance with the Standards for Rented Houses Regulations and made available for social housing. 

I am making €32 million available for the scheme in 2018 and I expect local authorities and AHBs to continue to implement the scheme locally. The amount that has been been spent to date in 2018 is set out in the following table:

End May 2018 RLS Capital Spend