Written answers

Tuesday, 26 March 2019

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Approved Housing Bodies

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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1381. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details of the enhanced leasing scheme by county; the number of units to be delivered under current agreements by county; the average cost for each unit per annum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12998/19]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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A range of housing options are necessary to ensure a supply of accommodation to meet different types of social housing need. Harnessing the off-balance sheet potential of private investment in social housing is an important objective of the Government and the social housing targets set out in Rebuilding Ireland over the period to 2021 reflect the ambition in that regard.

Of the 50,000 social housing homes to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, 10,000 are targeted to be leased by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) under leasing arrangements from a range of different sources, including the Repair and Lease Scheme (RLS), the existing social housing leasing arrangements, and the new Enhanced Lease Scheme. All homes delivered under leasing arrangements will be funded under the Department’s Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP).

It is intended that just over 2,000 units will be leased by Local Authorities in 2019 through a combination of longterm leasing arrangements, including the Enhanced Leasing Scheme.

The Enhanced Leasing Scheme has been developed by my Department, together with the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), the Housing Agency and local authorities, in order to harness the potential of private sector interest in social housing delivery in a new set of long-term leasing arrangements, in a manner designed to leverage off-balance sheet funding opportunities in accordance with Rebuilding Ireland objectives. The Scheme is targeted at new build or new to the market properties to be delivered at scale and will complement the existing long-term leasing arrangements, which will continue to be available. There are, however, a number of key differences between the standard long term lease and the enhanced lease, the purpose of which is to facilitate larger levels of private investment in social housing while ensuring that the capital investment is off balance sheet in respect of Government expenditure.

The scheme is governed by my Department and operated by local authorities. The Housing Agency manages and administers the scheme on behalf of my Department and will act as a national co-ordinator.

Two Calls for Proposals were run for interested parties during 2018; the first from January to April and the second from August to October. A significant number of potential properties were submitted for consideration by interested parties, in over 40 no. full submissions. A large number of these submissions did not meet the minimum requirements of the scheme, which included having appropriate planning permission in place and suitability for social housing. 3 proposals are currently at an advanced stage of the financial and associated diligence process, and are moving towards Agreement for Lease stage. Detailed information with respect to the numbers and locations of the units proposed for leasing under the Scheme will only be available once the individual proposals have been fully cleared and accepted in accordance with the terms and methodology set out in the Calls for Proposals documents and the respective Local Authorities have signed any Agreements for Lease arising.

The scheme is now open on an ongoing basis from Q1 2019.

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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1382. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding provided to approved housing bodies by county per annum since its inception for housing unit acquisition; the number of units acquired by county per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12999/19]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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1383. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding provided to AHBs by county basis per annum since its inception for housing unit construction; the number of units constructed under CALF by county per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13000/19]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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1384. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding provided to AHBs by county per annum since its inception for housing unit refurbishment; the number of units refurbished under CALF by county per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13001/19]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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1385. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding applications received from approved housing bodies by county basis per annum since its inception; the number approved; the number of housing units associated with the application; the number refused; the number of housing units associated with the application; the number with additional information requests; the number of housing units associated with the application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13002/19]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1382 to 1385, inclusive, together.

Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are making an important contribution to social housing delivery, as envisaged in Rebuilding Ireland. My Department and local authorities administer a number of funding programmes to assist AHBs with the cost of building, buying and leasing new social houses. All funding is conditional on the properties being made available to households on local authority waiting lists.

Under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), my Department, together with local authorities, can support AHBs to construct, purchase or lease housing units and make them available for social housing. The housing units are secured under long-term leases/availability arrangements between local authorities and AHBs, the cost of which is recouped to local authorities by my Department. The Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) funding is capital support provided to AHBs by local authorities to facilitate the funding of construction, acquisition or refurbishment of new social housing units, including units acquired through the establishment of the Housing Agency Acquisition Fund.

The capital advance is repayable by the AHB to the local authority at the end of a payment and availability agreement, usually 30 years. All proposals for CALF are submitted to my Department by AHBs for review, to ensure that each project complies with the terms of the CALF and that there are sufficient funds available.

To date, 26 AHBs have availed of CALF to secure homes for social housing use. Funding eligibility is aligned to those AHBs signed up to and demonstrating compliance with the Voluntary Regulation Code.

The CALF scheme delivers housing through close collaboration between AHBs and local authorities. This collaborative approach ensures that there is local authority support for the project prior to submission to my Department. Applications for funding for a scheme or individual homes, which have not progressed, may have fallen out of the process for various reasons and applications may also be resubmitted with revisions or by another AHB. Some 1,000 applications (with some 12,000 associated dwellings) for CALF have been made since 2011.

The CALF was introduced on 24 June 2011 and only a small number of AHBs availed of the facility during the period 2011 to 2013, delivering a total of 498 additional social housing homes under the scheme. Only over the last number of years has the sector moved to accessing private funding/ borrowing and moving away from full exchequer support. Since 2014, the number of homes delivered using CALF support has increased significantly year on year, along with Exchequer funding to support AHBs to access finance for the provision of new social housing. CALF expenditure in 2018 was €120.8 million; this included €2.18 million, which was offset against Local Property Tax funding, and 2,315 additional social housing homes were completed in 2018, as a result of CALF assistance. A provision of €94.4 million has been provided for the scheme in 2019.

At the end of Q4 2018, there were some 3,600 homes in the CALF acquisition and build pipeline, which will be delivered out to 2022. To date €220 million had been loaned by local authorities to AHBs and a further €231 million has been approved for lending but has not been drawn down.

Owing to the nature of the CALF scheme, home delivery does not always arise in the same year as expenditure being incurred. Schemes delivered under phased programmes may cross a number of payment periods.

Delivery under CALF since 2014 is set out in the following table:

Delivery Type 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
CALF Build 16 43 283 854 1,540
CALF Acquisition

(including Housing Agency Acquisitions since 2017)
303 331 283 403 775
Total 319 374 566 1,257 2,315
Details of the annual social housing output for each of the local authority areas, as well as the specific output under each of the funding programmes, are available on my Department's website at the following link: www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

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