Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1165.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the total number of properties purchased through Louth County Council under the tenant-in-situ purchase scheme; the total amount spent on this scheme in Louth to date; if additional targets will be set for this local authority under this scheme until the end of 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33190/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Under Housing for All, the Government will deliver 47,600 new build social homes and 3,500 social homes through long-term leasing in the period 2022-2026. Our clear focus is to increase the stock of social housing through new build projects delivered by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs).

Social Housing is delivered through a range of local authority and Approved Housing Body (AHB) delivery programmes across the build acquisition and lease delivery streams.

For 2023 and 2024, the Government agreed that there would be increased provision for social housing acquisitions and my Department provided funding for local authorities to acquire 1,500 social homes. The additional acquisitions have primarily focused on properties where a tenant is in receipt of social housing supports and has received a Notice of Termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property. My Department issued a circular letter in March 2024, setting out details of these arrangements and each local authority was provided with a provisional allocation for social housing acquisitions in 2024.

In 2023 Louth County Council purchased a total of 88 homes, exceeding their original target of 30. For 2024, the Council has been provided with an allocation for 60 acquisitions and provisional data submitted indicates a strong performance again this year.

Local authorities have delegated sanction in relation to these acquisitions, subject to those acquisitions being within Acquisition Cost Guidelines (ACGs) issued by the Department. Local authorities regularly acquire properties that require repairs, however the cost of acquiring the property and relevant refurbishment costs must fall within the ACGs. An independent valuation must also be obtained for each acquisition, in line with established practice for local authorities for social housing acquisitions. The current Acquisition Cost Guidelines were updated and issued to local authorities in April 2024.

It is a matter for individual local authorities to identify suitable acquisitions in line with local circumstances and their social housing allocations policy. Local authorities take appropriate steps to ensure that their first response will be to support households to try to prevent homelessness in cases where tenants have been served with a notice of termination by their landlord. It is important to acknowledge that the Tenant in Situ scheme has been a key measure in preventing homelessness and as such has mitigated such impacts for many households.

My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social and affordable housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority, including completed acquisitions. From 2023, this data includes a breakdown of acquisitions completed by each local authority where a Notice of Termination issued to a tenant and is available, for all local authorities, to the end of Quarter 1 2024 on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link:www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/.