Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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279. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details of the number of affordable housing units that have been provided since 3 September 2021, under part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2020, as amended by the Affordable Housing Act 2021; the breakdown of the number of affordable housing units by houses and apartment units, respectively, built and sold, built and not yet sold, currently under construction that have been agreed with the relevant local authority as part of the grant of planning permission with construction yet to commence in tabular form. [34347/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing for All strategy delivers on the Programme for Government commitment to step up housing supply and put affordability at the heart of the housing system, with an ambitious target of 300,000 homes over the next decade for social, affordable and cost rental, private rental and private ownership housing. It will see 54,000 affordable home interventions which includes 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost rental homes to be delivered between now and 2030 by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), the Land Development Agency (LDA) and through ‘First Home’ a strategic partnership between the State and retail banks. 

The primary purpose of Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) is to capture a portion of the increase in land value resulting from the granting of planning permission for residential development. In line with Government commitments, the Part V provision was increased, via the Affordable Housing Act 2021, from 10% for social housing to a mandatory 20% for social, affordable and cost rental housing requirements.  The amended Part V provisions now require at least half of the planning gain to be applied to social housing provision, with the remainder to be applied to affordable housing, which can be affordable purchase, cost rental or both. 

The amendments came into effect on 3 September 2021 and apply to land purchased before 2015 and on or after 1 August 2021. Transitional arrangements have also been introduced and provide that the previous 10% Part V requirement will continue to apply to extant planning permissions and land purchased between 2015 and 2021. Near term supply will not be affected by these changes; however, this will change in 2026 when the 20% Part V requirement will apply to all land.  As this change applies to new planning permissions on relevant land, there will likely be a time lag between the application of the 20% requirement and the actual delivery of affordable purchase and cost rental units. The Department is currently making changes to the data reporting for local authorities in order to gather information on a systematic and consistent basis regarding delivery of affordable units under Part V and is not aware of any units that have been delivered to date which is consistent with development timelines.

It should be noted, however, that alongside the Part V arrangements, the Affordable Housing Fund provides exchequer funding support to local authorities to allow the delivery of housing at affordable prices or rents on local authority lands or via advance purchase arrangements with developers for new housing on developer-owned land.