Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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109. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the average cost to councils for social housing; the range by the lowest to the highest amount spent by each council on social housing in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7642/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I understand the Deputy is referring to the construction of new social homes by local authorities.

As capital funded construction projects by local authorities must, like all publicly-funded construction programmes, comply with the Public Spending Code and Capital Works Management Framework, my Department periodically issues Unit Cost Ceilings (UCCs) for each local authority area, for use as a key benchmark for the development and costing of social housing construction scheme designs at capital appraisal stage. While not a record of actual delivery costs, UCCs are based on an analysis of returned data from tendered social housing schemes over an extended period and updated based on published tender index information as required.

To monitor tender cost trends and to inform the UCCs levels, my Department analyses the tender data for the construction cost elementof local authority new build social housing schemes approved under the four-stage approval processes for each unit type, where sufficient information is available to allow such costs to be extrapolated and where the information available is appropriate for comparison purposes.

Outlined in the tables below are average construction costs (incl. VAT) recorded as part of the aforementioned analysis for projects tendered in each of the years 2017 to 2020. I have provided the averages across all local authority areas, in addition to the averages for the four Dublin local authorities and other city based authorities for comparison purposes.

The tables also set out the range of costs that make up this average for each local authority. The range of costs recorded vary, depending on design, type of units (e.g. bedroom numbers, apartment/house); and on the level of abnormal cost requirements for each scheme, such as existing site conditions, demolitions, service diversions and site access requirements. Abnormal costs are also separately identified in the tables below.

**Some data on contruction costs for 2020 has yet to be analysed.

The above costs relate to the construction element of the all-in delivery cost. Other items that make up the all-in total include:

- Design/technical fees: Design fees vary from project to project, depending on the location, size and complexity of a scheme (and depending on whether design services are provided by a local authority in-house or via external appointment). As a guideline/indicator, design fee are generally expected to range between 7.5% to 12.5% of construction costs.

- Land cost: Land costs will vary significantly from project to project, depending on location and ownership status (i.e. land costs could vary from existing local authority land at no cost to land purchased at market value).

- Utilities: Connection fees for Irish Water, ESB, gas, etc. As a guideline/indicator, utility connection costs are generally in the order of €7k per unit.

- Other Costs: Other items that make up the all-in delivery cost can include site investigations/ surveys, archaeological requirements, Percent for Art contributions - and will vary from scheme to scheme.

To assist in policy development and to provide evidenced based data, in October 2020, the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, published an ‘Analysis of Social Housing Build Programme’ which examined the social housing build programme over the years 2016 to 2019 and considered issues such as Use of Build Delivery; Type of Units, Cost & Speed of Delivery and Cost Efficiency and Market Interaction. The IGEES analysis noted the range of average costs which highlighted the diversity of costs for delivery of new build units across different developments and locations. The paper is available at the following link: .

I look forward to working with all stakeholders in delivering on the commitment in the Programme for Government to increase the social housing stock by over 50,000 over the next five years, with an emphasis on new builds, and to ensuring that local authorities are central to delivering housing. Since taking up office, this commitment has been my key priority and focus. This is evidenced in Budget 2021 which provides record funding for housing of €3.3 billion overall.