Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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97. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the provision of social and affordable housing in County Clare. [11845/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Increasing the supply of social and affordable homes is a priority for this Government as shown clearly in the Housing for All strategy. Following the launch of the strategy last September we issued social housing targets to all local authority Chief Executives for the 5 years 2022 to 2026. Of the national target of over 50,000 new social homes, I’m asking Clare County Council to deliver 833 over those years, through their own projects and also working with the housing associations. Under Housing for All, the funding is in place to support Clare County Council and indeed all the Councils, to get these housing projects built.

I want to acknowledge that Clare County Council - with good support from their public representatives - has always delivered well against their social housing targets to date. They also have a solid pipeline of new projects in place and I’m keen that they advance these as speedily as possible.

For the purpose of tracking social housing delivery, a Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR) is published each quarter by my Department. This provides details of the individual social housing build projects in the programme of each local authority, including Clare County Council. The CSR provides details of locations of the projects, the number of homes being delivered and the current status of each project, including those currently on site and under construction. The most recently published CSR covers the period up to the end of Quarter 3 of 2021, and is available at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/feea9-social-housing-construction-projects-status-report-q3-2021/. Information on Quarter 4 of 2021, will be available shortly and will be added to the published data. Further specific information on their build programmes will be available from the local authorities.

The Affordable Housing Act 2021 established a basis for four new affordable housing measures, to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to put affordability at the heart of the housing system and prioritise the increased supply of affordable homes through (1) delivering affordable homes on local authority lands, (2) the introduction of a new form of tenure in Cost Rental, (3) a First Home shared equity scheme and (4) expanding Part V planning requirements to increase the 10% contribution requirement to 20% and to apply it to cost rental, as well as social and affordable housing. The First Home shared equity scheme will be available nationally on a demand-led basis. This scheme will primarily support first-time buyers purchasing new homes through the private market. It is anticipated this scheme will be open for applications in the second half of this year. The national 2022 target delivery for the First Home Scheme is 1,750.

At a national level, 2,550 Affordable Purchase homes and 1,580 Cost Rental homes are targeted for delivery for 2022. Annual targets will increase incrementally in subsequent years.

Delivery of affordable housing will be underpinned by Local Authorities' Housing Delivery Action Plans. Having reviewed the submitted Plans, my Department has held meetings with Local Authorities. The information shared in these meetings, and through a two-day Housing Summit held last week with all local authorities, will facilitate more informed target setting for each area. Updated Housing Delivery Action Plans will be published by the local authorities, including Clare County Council, later this year.