Written answers

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Social and Affordable Housing

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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128. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of houses made available directly to each local authority through Part 8 or similar schemes in each of the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17918/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department publishes comprehensive statistics on a quarterly basis on all social housing delivery activity under Rebuilding Ireland. This is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: .

In addition to the statistical overview of activity in each local authority, a detailed Social Housing Construction Status Report is published which provides scheme level detail on new build activity under Rebuilding Ireland. The most recent publication covers the period up to the end of Q4 2019 and was published on 14 May 2020. This report is available at the following link: .

Construction projects listed in the Social Housing Construction Status Report include projects which are both within and outside the Part 8 process. Non-Part 8 projects include those being advanced by Approved Housing Bodies and projects by private developers that are being secured on a turn-key basis by local authorities.

In most cases local authorities use the Part 8 process for local authority own development, which is not a planning application, and data on Part 8 cases is not collated in planning statistics as these applications are a matter for each relevant local authority.

In the Construction Status Report, projects listed as LA Construction or LA Construction Rapid may be considered as direct LA Build schemes. The overall Build programme listed 8,900 such homes at end 2019, of which just under 2,700 had completed and the remainder were advancing through various stages of the programme. This listed is being added to weekly.

The publication of updated reports in relation to this year was affected by Covid restrictions and the prioritisation of Covid related housing responses. They will be made available in due course.

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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129. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of houses made available to tenants through each approved housing body in each of the past four years to date; the extent to which he expects an increase in this activity annually in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17919/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The allocation of homes to households on waiting lists by either Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) or local authorities is a matter for individual local authorities in line with their scheme of housing allocations.

My Department supports local authorities to engage with AHBs in the delivery of housing through a wide range of schemes. In total, some 10,800 Department funded AHB homes have been delivered for local authority tenants through a combination of Build, Acquisition and Leasing schemes between 2016 and 2019, as outlined in the table below:

Year Total AHB Delivery
2016 1,169
2017 2,330
2018 3,219
2019 4,113
10,831

Outside of Department funded structures, AHBs may also operate their own housing activity portfolios.

Significant progress has been made by the AHB sector over the last number of years. There are a range of funding and delivery mechanisms available to local authorities to deliver social housing supports in partnership with AHBs through capital funding and social housing current expenditure funding. The funding under these programmes is provided directly to local authorities who, in turn, advance the funding to AHBs, as appropriate.

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