Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Local authorities 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.

Since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to supplement the local authority funding available for the preparation of vacant properties for re-letting. The funding was introduced originally to tackle long-term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted to support authorities to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock.

The emphasis of the programme is on minimum refurbishment works to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 to ensure quick turnaround and re-letting times. Under the Voids programme, local authorities select properties for the programme and there is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent on an individual unit, providing the total amount averaged across all dwellings submitted by a local authority is met. Budget 2024 has provided €31 million to the programme this year and funding allocations under Planned Maintenance/Voids will be announced in due course.

Given the very significant investment into the Voids Programme over recent years local authorities are now in a strong position to continue the transition to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance.

To that end, my Department and local authorities are continuing to progress from a largely response and voids based approach to housing stock management and maintenance, to a planned maintenance approach as referenced in Housing for All, policy objective 20.6. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes in response.

Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock. This will fluctuate over time, as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is an ongoing process. Therefore, ongoing data in relation to vacant local authority owned homes are not routinely collated by my Department.

However, statistics in relation to social housing stock, at a point in time, are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their Annual Reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These reports provide a range of information in relation to social housing stock, including levels of vacancy and average turnaround times for reletting local authority owned properties. The most recent report, relating to 2022, is available on the NOAC website at the following link:

www.noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/20231009-NOAC-PI-Report-2022-FINAL.pdf