Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the leasing of houses and apartments. Dwellings under the scheme come from a number of different sources including private owners, Part V and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs).

AHBs are important partners for local authorities in the delivery of social housing. AHBs can lease properties from private property owners using a long term lease arrangement for a period from 10 to 25 years. This long term lease arrangement is negotiated between the AHB and the property owner and it is the AHB’s responsibility to ensure that the lease complies with the general leasing terms.

There is no current option to purchase the leased property under long term lease arrangements, however, an option to purchase may have been included in some long term leases by local authorities in the early stages of the leasing programme.

At end 2021, 1,006 AHB leased dwellings were supported under SHCEP with an average annual cost of €10,110 per dwelling. This data refers to AHB long term leases and does not include CALF funded projects.

Rental Availability Agreements (RAAs) otherwise known as Rental Accommodation Scheme/ RAS type agreements are funded under SHCEP and are agreements between property owners and local authorities to secure medium to long-term availability of accommodation over a period of time (1-10 years). RAAs are not available to AHBs.

Separately, the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) allows tenants of AHBs in receipt of rent supplement and residing in CAS funded properties to transfer to RAS. The local authority enters into a contract with the AHB to make the property available to RAS for an agreed term at an agreed monthly rent. This is a contractual arrangement, rather than a lease agreement.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department regularly publishes information on the number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Local authority approval means that an official letter of offer has been sent to a borrower (and therefore relates to a specific property and loan amount). 

Local Authority drawdowns, approvals, average drawdowns, and average approvals for 2021 is available at the following link, under the folder name 'Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan 2018 to date':

www.gov.ie/en/collection/42d2f-local-authority-loan-activity/#local-authority-loans-approvedpaid.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is available to all eligible households throughout the State. At the end of Q4 2021, over 100,000 HAP tenancies had been set-up since the scheme commenced, of which there were more than 61,900 households actively in receipt of HAP support and over 33,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme.

The table below shows the number of active HAP tenancies in each local authority at the end of each year, from 2015 to 2021 (only 485 tenancies were active at end 2014).

Local Authority	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2015	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2016	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2017	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2018	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2019	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2020	Active HAP Tenancies Q4 2021
Carlow	106	435	581	706	730	743	695
Cavan			131	275	342	429	463
Clare	236	955	1,193	1,335	1,369	1,423	1,347
Cork City	111	984	1,625	2,063	2,749	3,133	3,185
Cork County	900	1,774	2,647	3,339	3,431	3,722	3,650
Donegal	492	1,317	1,627	1,729	1,805	1,833	1,792
* Dublin City	56	831	3,429	6,331	9,368	12,423	14,589
DLR			165	388	562	735	917
Fingal			488	1,286	1,898	2,089	2,565
Galway City		332	919	1,351	1,723	1,951	1,918
Galway County	7	379	728	981	1,229	1,428	1,491
Kerry		7	427	898	1,236	1,623	1,708
Kildare	32	786	1,436	1,892	2,195	2,398	2,320
Kilkenny	498	717	836	869	867	854	774
Laois			316	657	888	982	929
Leitrim		3	95	208	254	293	285
Limerick City  & County	1,056	1,526	1,948	2,175	2,308	2,442	2,425
Longford		1	128	291	330	379	377
Louth	641	1,232	1,969	2,643	3,046	3,280	3,271
Mayo	18	402	817	1,120	1,280	1,356	1,336
Meath	14	485	1,220	1,740	2,089	2,275	2,210
Monaghan	176	305	437	530	586	628	566
Offaly	95	302	684	845	883	877	804
Roscommon			171	354	421	468	443
Sligo	9	203	467	648	758	831	834
South Dublin	563	1,468	2,180	2,605	2,726	2,936	2,957
Tipperary	188	1,018	1,633	1,767	1,778	1,868	1,843
Waterford City & County	655	1,027	1,605	1,833	1,952	2,127	2,009
Westmeath			366	656	901	1014	975
Wexford		1	536	1,020	1,377	1,613	1,518
Wicklow		3	424	908	1,448	1,668	1,711
Total	5,853	16,493	31,228	43,443	52,529	59,821	61,907

*DRHE is operating Homeless HAP on behalf of the four Dublin Local Authorities

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 613 and 614 together.

All funding provided to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to support social housing is made available by my Department through local authorities who, as the statutory housing authorities, are the decision makers in relation to the suitability of a proposed social housing project. Local authorities are required to evaluate that any social housing project, including those by AHBs, reflect housing need, that the properties comply with regulatory requirements and that the objectives of creating and maintaining sustainable communities are met.

In recent years, the main source of funding to AHBs for social housing delivery is through borrowings and support from local authorities through the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) and Payment and Availability (P&A) programme. AHBs enter into a P&A agreement with the local authority and make the relevant properties available for social housing.  

Applications for P&A-CALF funding are made by AHBs directly to my Department, following a consultation with the local authority. The application to my Department normally consists of a completed application form and a financial model for the capital cost, income and operational costs projected over the P&A term.

As with all Exchequer-supported projects, my Department as sanctioning authority assesses each project proposal for suitability as determined by the local authority, value for money and compliance with the various requirements of the funding programme. On the financial aspects of a CALF application, the Housing Agency undertakes an independent assessment to analyse the capital costs, projected income and projected expenditure against a standard set of assumptions agreed with the Department. The appropriate level of CALF is determined by reference to a projected minimum Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR). Debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) is a measurement of the cash flow available to pay current debt obligations. 

Detailed approval, payment and performance monitoring arrangements are in place across all Departmental funding arrangements, including those supporting AHB activity. Following approval, letters of sanction include detailed terms and conditions relating to payments, and onward payments to AHBs are issued to the local authority and Approved Housing Body. In the case of CALF and P&A supported projects, once approved, the local authority then enters into two agreements with the AHB, as follows: 

- The P&A Agreement that will cover the conditions under which the properties will be made available for the term of the agreement; and 

- A Capital Advance Agreement (CAA) that stipulates the terms and conditions on which the money is being made available from the State and also stipulates the repayment conditions.

All payments are made to AHBs by local authorities and my Department recoups these costs to local authorities.

Accelerated CALF payments may also be approved by the Department for projects including turnkey developments. The accelerated CALF can be applied to facilitate site purchases or stage payments to a developer, deposits for properties under construction or for sale and to facilitate the acquisition of homes requiring works. In such cases, the milestones may vary depending on the requirements of the project and will be set out by my Department in its approval letter. The local authority will seek an acknowledgement of the associated risk along with details on any mitigation measures to be taken by the AHB. 

Social housing construction projects funded by my Department for local authorities under the Social Housing Investment Programme and for AHBs under the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), must like all publicly-funded construction projects, comply with the Government’s Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF), the objectives of which are to ensure greater cost certainty, better value for money and financial accountability. To ensure alignment with the CWMF, these projects progress through a four stage approval process as part of the broader pre-construction process undertaken by the local authority.  The four stages are:

Stage 1 – Capital Appraisal submission to establish the business case;

Stage 2 – Pre-planning submission and cost check;

Stage 3 – Pre-tender approval and cost check;

Stage 4 – Tender approval.

My Department and local authorities also operate a single-stage approval process for construction projects up to €6m in value, while Design and Build approaches are also used which can save time in relation to design, procurement and construction. The majority of local authority public housing projects are developed using public works contracts.

Local authorities also acquire social housing through a turnkey arrangement with developers through funding under the Social Housing Investment Programme. The Department’s approval procedure for turnkeys is generally a single stage evaluation and approval with submissions being made by way of a Capital Appraisal. Unlike the public works contract for a CWMF construction project, a turnkey contract can be a simple ‘Contract of Sale’. However, there are general procurement principles which apply and, in particular, the local authorities must comply with obligations for transparency and equal treatment, as well as clarifying for my Department‘s assessment and approval, that the turnkey proposal meets housing need, is suitable in terms of typology and sustainable community principles, is compliant with regulatory requirements and represents value for money.

I have recently published a new Design Manual for Quality Housing and also a Review of Pre-Construction Processes undertaken in cooperation with the local authority and AHB sectors. These recent initiatives are important in the work to improve the quality, cost-effectiveness and pace of delivery of social homes.