Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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349. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a steady funding stream will be provided for the upgrading of local authority owned homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24417/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock is very important and local authorities have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019. Local authority officials and elected members have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and cyclical maintenance utilising the housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their housing stock, my Department provides annual funding support to local authorities for management and maintenance under a number of funding programmes.

Under the Voids Programme, my Department has supported local authorities in refurbishing vacant social homes and returning them to productive use. This funding programme was introduced in 2014 and has to the end of 2020 returned 16,102 properties to use with funding of €229m from my Department.

In 2020, my Department rolled out the largest ever voids funding programme. With additional funding of €40m secured under the July Stimulus Programme. Funding of €58.3m was made available to local authorities which saw 3,607 vacant properties funded last year.

Under the Energy Efficiency Programme, my Department funds the carrying out of retrofitting works to local authority dwellings. Over the period 2013 to 2020 over 73,500 units of social housing stock have been retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €161m under the scheme.

Under the Disabled Persons Grant Scheme, my Department funds local authorities in carrying out necessary adaptation works to local authority properties to cater for the needs of elderly and disabled tenants and families living in overcrowded conditions in local authority properties. Since 2011 my Department has provided exchequer funding of some €120m to support this programme.

Under the Regeneration Scheme, my Department funds programmes of estate regeneration in a number of targeted areas around the country. This programme focuses on the remediation and upgrade of existing local authority homes within defined areas of disadvantage and can also provide for some new homes as part of the overall regeneration plan for the area. Since 2015 over €300m of exchequer funding has been provided to support this programme.

Since 2011 my Department has provided funding of over €800m to local authorities under the above stock improvement programmes.

My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work in these areas in 2021, however, it is important to note that my Department and local authorities are working to transition from a largely response and voids based approach for housing stock management and maintenance to a planned maintenance approach. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys on all social homes in local authority ownership over a 4 to 5 year timespan. This is scheduled to commence in late 2021 as part of the piloting of the ICT system to support this work. The subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes will be determined as a result of these surveys. My Department will support these work programmes by ensuring that the funding available under various stock improvement programmes support this approach.