Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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1201. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the cost guidelines issued to each local authority for the acquisition of houses and apartments for use as social housing units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8955/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The current cost guidelines for the acquisition of houses and apartments for use as social housing were issued to local authorities in April 2019, under Circular 15/2019. These will be provided to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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1202. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social houses recorded under the heading of new build in the 2019 social housing update that are leased by local authority area; if they are included under approved housing body or local authority units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8956/20]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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1204. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the criteria for including a leased unit as a new build in the social housing update; the number of leased social housing units that will end up in the ownership of the State at the expiry of the lease; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8958/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1202 and 1204 together.

Of the 50,000 social housing homes to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, over 10,000 homes are targeted to be leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies (AHBs) under leasing arrangements from a range of different sources including direct leasing by local authorities and approved housing bodies; rental availability agreements; the Repair and Leasing Scheme; the Mortgage to Rent Scheme; and Enhanced Leasing.

Leasing is funded under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), which funds the ongoing current costs of homes delivered using a variety of different delivery mechanisms under the Rebuilding Ireland categories of Build, Acquisition and Leasing. These include:

- Build - Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) Build, CALF Part V, Part V Lease;

- Acquisition - CALF Acquisition, Housing Agency Acquisitions (HAA);

- Leasing - Direct and Enhanced Leasing, AHB and Private Mortgage to Rent (MTR), the Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS).

A total of 4,365 homes were delivered under schemes funded by SHCEP in 2019, across Build, Acquisition and Leasing. Of this number, 14 homes were delivered under Part V Lease arrangements. These 14 Part V Lease dwellings are counted under the Build programme outputs as local authority units. A breakdown of the 1,326 dwellings delivered in 2019 under Part V is set out below.

Table 1: Breakdown of Part V Delivery 2019

The only circumstance where a leased unit is counted under the Build programme outputs is where the unit has been delivered under Part V arrangements; all Part V dwellings are counted under Build. A breakdown of the Part V Lease dwellings delivered in 2019, by local authority, is set out in the following table.

Table 2: Breakdown of Part V Lease Delivery 2019 

Properties sourced by local authorities and AHBs under lease arrangements, including Part V leases, are likely to be owned by the property owner at the end of the lease term. Properties acquired by AHBs are likely to remain in the ownership of AHBs. The ownership of leased properties sourced through the National Asset Residential Property Services D.A.C. (NARPS) will remain with NARPS at the expiration of the lease term. Following a direction by the Minister for Finance in 2019, NARPS will be retained in long term State ownership and will transfer to the State at the direction of the Minister for Finance.

Data in relation to dwellings delivered under Leasing from 2017 - 2019, and in relation to all operational dwellings funded under SHCEP, is published on my Department's website at the following link:

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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1203. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding stream from which the 2019 Part V units were paid from by local authority; the spend by local authority per unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8957/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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A total of 1,326 Part V homes were delivered by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) for social housing in 2019.  A detailed breakdown of these homes across all local authority areas in the period up to end Q4 2019 is available at the following link:

Of the 1,326 Part V homes provided for social housing in 2019, 589 homes were delivered by LAs. 578 of these fall under the Social Housing Capital Investment Programme (SHCIP) funding mechanism  and the remaining 11 were delivered by the local authority at no cost to the Department- these may have been funded by the local authority through own resources, or from a historic Part V agreement.

Part V homes are also funded under Approved Housing Body (AHB) funding programmes, including the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) which supported 719 Part V homes in 2019 and the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) which supported the delivery of 4 Part V homes in 2019. Finally, in the event that the Part V agreement is for a lease, the units will be funded under the SHCEP leasing programme, there were 14 such homes provided in 2019.

While statistics have been collated in relation to Part V delivery, given the various delivery models outlined above, a unit cost analysis of these homes by local authority level is not available. It must also be noted that expenditure and cost are not analogous as recoupment to the LA for a unit delivered in a particular year may arise in the following year, depending on the timing of the claim submission.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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1205. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of persons on the housing waiting list by local authority area; the number of persons in receipt of HAP in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8959/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority area are set out in the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recently conducted SSHA details the number of households on all local authority waiting lists as at 24 June 2019 (the count date).

The full report, including breakdowns by each local authority across a range of categories, is available on my Department’s website at the following link: 

.

It should be noted that the SSHA is a point in time exercise and does not reflect the dynamic nature of entries to and exists from the lists.

In summary the 2019 SSHA shows that 68,693 households were assessed as qualified and being in need of social housing support. This represents a decrease of 3,165 households or 4.4% on the last assessment in June 2018. Indeed, since the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan was launched in 2016, the numbers have decreased from 91,600 to 68,693, a reduction of 25%.

In relation to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), the scheme plays a vital role in housing eligible families and individuals.  At the end of Quarter 4 2019, over 71,000 HAP tenancies had been set-up since the scheme commenced, of which there were more than 52,500 households actively in receipt of HAP support and over 30,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme. The following table sets out the active HAP tenancies in each Local Authority and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, at 31 December 2019.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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1206. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of public private partnership units included in the latest Rebuilding Ireland social housing update; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8960/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I assume the Deputy is referring to the Social Housing Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme, which is being progressed by my Department in conjunction with the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), in its role as procuring authority and financial advisor, as well as Dublin City Council and Cork County Council, as lead local authority and Sponsoring Agency for Bundles 1 and 2 respectively.  I can confirm that to end Q4 2019, there were a total of 999 homes under construction at sites across 10 local authorities under this programme included in the Rebuilding Ireland Social Housing Update.

PPPs represent just one strand of the overall plan to accelerate the supply of social housing, which is the second pillar of Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing & Homelessness. The 999 homes referred to are being delivered using an availability based PPP model, in which a private sector company designs, builds, finances and maintains the social housing developments in return for a monthly unitary payment from the State.  The terms of the agreement provide for a cessation of the unitary payment and that the homes be returned to the full ownership of the State after a period of 25 years. 

The Department is currently in the initial stages of working with the NDFA and participating local autorities to progress Bundle 3 of the PPP programme.  In total, it is intended to deliver up to 1,500 social housing units across the three bundles, and through investment with a capital value of €300 million.