Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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71. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the targets for the return of social housing stock; and the targeted average timeline for return. [22133/22]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock is the responsibility of each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966.

Since 2014 however, my Departments Voids Programme has supplemented the local authority own resources available for the preparation of vacant properties for re-letting. The funding was introduced originally to tackle long term vacant properties and is now increasingly targeted to support authorities to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock by focusing only on work necessary to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019. 

From 2014 to 2021, expenditure of some €261 million was recouped to local authorities under the Voids Programme which funded the return to active use of 18,527 properties nationwide. Targets and timelines for the return to use of vacant stock are not set by my Department as there is already a  requirement on local authorities to return all vacant properties to use as quickly as possible. This is however monitored and reported on annually by NOAC.

My Department will continue to support local authorities with voids and with the  transition to a planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance over the coming years. Funding allocations under the Voids Programme for 2022 will be announced shortly.