Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1560. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has carried out a review of his Department's voids programme to take account of construction inflation; if not, his plans to do so; the average cost of a void turnaround in each local authority area, in tabular form; and the average time taken to convert a void in each local authority area, in tabular form. [42562/25]

James Browne (Wexford, 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 also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities my Department provides annual funding to support the turnaround and re-let of vacant local authority homes under the Voids Programme. The 2025 Programme will provide funding of €31 million to local authorities to support the refurbishment and re-letting of a minimum of 1,900 homes, and continue the transition from a reactive, voids approach to a Planned Maintenance approach.

Under the Voids Programme there is no upper cap that can be spent on an individual dwelling providing the overall average per dwelling of €11,000 is maintained.

As part of the Programme for Government, consideration is being given to the introduction of a new Voids Programme with a view to further improve turnaround times of vacant social housing units.

Ongoing data in relation to vacant local authority owned homes is not routinely collated by my Department. Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock. Vacancy levels naturally vary over time, as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is a continuous process. 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 2023, is available on the NOAC website at the following link:

www.noac.ie/18-september-2024-local-authority-performance-indicator-report-2023/