​QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of enhanced leasing scheme units due to be operational in 2018; when the scheme will be open to interested parties; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY



The first call for proposals for the Enhanced Long Term Social Housing Leasing Scheme was launched on 31 January 2018 and the Housing Agency accepted submissions from interested parties until 12 April 2018. 

A total of 33 submissions were received from interested parties, which represents strong interest from the market. The Housing Agency is currently reviewing the proposals and will complete the initial review process in the coming weeks. 

Detailed information with respect to the numbers and locations of the units proposed for leasing under the Scheme will only be available once the individual proposals have been assessed, marked and accepted in accordance with the terms of the scheme and the respective Local Authorities have signed any Agreements for Lease arising. 

The first call for proposals was primarily aimed at new to the market or yet to be built properties and, as such, the lead-in time for occupation is likely to extend beyond 2018 in the majority of cases.  Any opportunities for 2018 delivery will be pursued as a priority. 

My Department is currently working with the Housing Agency on a second call for proposals and it is expected that this will open in July 2018. 

Question:
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government when the affordable purchase scheme will fully commence; the number of affordable purchase scheme units to be provided in 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

​REPLY

Ensuring that we have a supply of housing that is affordable, particularly for households on low to moderate incomes, is a major priority for this Government. Recognising that people want a choice of affordable purchase and rental, depending on their stage of life and circumstances, both are being progressed through a range of initiatives.  

In order to underpin progress in this area, I have now commenced the relevant provisions of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, the effect of which is to place the new scheme for affordable purchase on a statutory footing.  From engagements with the local authorities in Dublin, the wider Greater Dublin Area, as well as Cork and Galway cities, their initial estimates suggest that they have lands with the potential to deliver some 4,000 new affordable homes.  My Department is continuing to work with the key local authorities and the Housing Agency to identify sites which would see the level of ambition increase to at least 10,000 new affordable homes, and that analysis is progressing well.  Significant progress has been made on individual projects, such as the O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road sites in the Dublin City Council area.

With regard to cost rental, I am determined for it to become a major part of our rental landscape in the future. It is clear that there is a gap between social housing and the rental market that needs to be filled, making a sustainable impact on housing affordability, national competitiveness, and the attractiveness of our main urban centres as places to live and work.

The Housing Agency, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and a number of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have been working to get our first cost rental pilot, at Enniskerry Road, ready for tenders to issue shortly. In parallel, Dublin City Council, my Department and the National Development Finance Agency are undertaking detailed modelling and financial appraisal on a major site, at St. Michael’s Estate in Inchicore, to assess its suitability for a significant cost rental development. The work of that multi-disciplinary team is progressing well and should be concluded shortly.   

In order to support local authorities to get their sites ready for affordable housing, I have decided to provide additional funding for enabling infrastructure via the Serviced Sites Fund.  Given that housing-related infrastructure will now be able to avail of funding under the €2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, I am re-directing the €50m funding for Phase 2 of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund to the Serviced Sites Fund, increasing the scale of the Fund from the previously announced €25m to €75m.  When local authority co-funding is included, an overall minimum investment of €100 million will be provided to those sites that require infrastructural investment in order for them to be brought into use for affordable housing.  In order to drive early activity, I will be inviting applications for funding under the Serviced Sites Fund by the end of next week.   

In relation to Adamstown, South Dublin County Council is the specified Development Agency for the Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) in that area and is committed to working with the landowners to ensure the successful implementation of the SDZ Planning Scheme.  This will contribute to the construction of a mix of tenure types, the creation of an attractive place for people to live at more affordable prices and rents, and the creation of a sustainable, integrated community.  Arising from agreements made under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, Adamstown will deliver 2,000 homes by 2021, including houses at more affordable price points.  

While delivery from the State's land bank is a critical instrument in increasing the supply of affordable housing, the Government has also taken measures to incentivise development on privately owned sites and to discourage land hoarding. The planning process has been de-risked and streamlined through the new Strategic Housing Development process and the number of new homes granted planning permissions in Q1 2018 are up by 80% compared to Q1 2017.

In addition, the vacant site levy is playing an important role in countering land hoarding and ensuring that key sites are developed without delay.  This will be strengthened shortly through new legislation to increase the maximum annual levy from 3% to 7% from 2019 and I will be continuing to keep the operation of the levy under review.

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government when the affordable purchase scheme will fully commence; the number of affordable purchase scheme units to be provided in 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

Under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Government's commitment to an ambitious delivery agenda in relation to social housing is clear and substantial progress continues to be made to expand the social housing programme very significantly from a virtual standstill position a number of years ago.

As Minister, I have been clear that we also need to address issues of housing affordability, recognising the pressures that exist for low- to middle-income households, particularly in Dublin and certain other of our main urban centres.

In order to underpin progress in this area, I have now commenced the relevant provisions of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, the effect of which is to place the new scheme for affordable purchase on a statutory footing.  From engagements with the local authorities in Dublin, the wider Greater Dublin Area, as well as Cork and Galway cities, their initial estimates suggest that they have lands with the potential to deliver some 4,000 new affordable homes.  My Department is continuing to work with the key local authorities and the Housing Agency to identify sites which would see the level of ambition increase to at least 10,000 new affordable homes from local authority owned land, and that analysis is progressing well.  

With regard to cost rental, I am determined for it to become a major part of our rental landscape in the future. It is clear that there is a gap between social housing and the rental market that needs to be filled, making a sustainable impact on housing affordability, national competitiveness, and the attractiveness of our main urban centres as places to live and work.

The Housing Agency, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and a number of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have been working to get our first cost rental pilot, at Enniskerry Road, ready for tenders to issue shortly. In parallel, Dublin City Council, my Department and the National Development Finance Agency are undertaking detailed modelling and financial appraisal on a major site, at St. Michael’s Estate in Inchicore, to assess its suitability for a significant cost rental development. The work of that multi-disciplinary team is progressing well and should be concluded shortly.   

In order to support local authorities to get their sites ready for affordable housing, I have decided to provide additional funding for enabling infrastructure via the Serviced Sites Fund.  Given that housing-related infrastructure will now be able to avail of funding under the €2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, I am re-directing the €50m funding for Phase 2 of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund to the Serviced Sites Fund, increasing the scale of the fund from the previously announced €25m to €75m.  When local authority co-funding is included, an overall minimum investment of €100 million will be provided to those sites that require infrastructural investment in order for them to be brought into use for affordable housing.  In order to drive early activity, I will be inviting applications for funding under the Serviced Sites Fund by the end of next week.

​QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the development of a special purpose vehicle to enable credit union fund investment in social housing; the timeframe for its launch; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY



The Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness emphasises the need to look at new ways of funding social housing delivery, in particular the need to provide structural, funding and policy supports to increase delivery of social housing by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs). 

Against that background, the credit unions representative bodies put forward proposals as to how credit unions could provide loan finance to AHBs for social housing.  In February 2018, following the publication of a consultation paper and a period of consultation, the Registrar of Credit Unions, who is responsible for regulatory oversight of credit unions, amended the regulations to allow credit unions to invest in Tier 3 AHBs under certain conditions.  

In May 2017, my Department announced that funding of €49,000 would be provided to the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) to support an initiative through which they would develop proposals regarding special purpose vehicles and a mechanism that would enable the sector to attract investment in social housing projects from potential investors, including the credit union movement. Work has been on-going between the ICSH, a number of larger Tier 3 AHBs and their financial advisors on the development of such a vehicle, taking account also of the recent Eurostat decision on the reclassification of the AHB sector. The ICSH anticipates that this work should be completed in the third quarter of this year.

I and my Department have met with the credit union movement on a number of occasions in relation to their wish to invest in social housing. The Department has also facilitated engagement between the credit union sector and  the ICSH, with a view to encouraging links between the two sectors and allowing credit unions to share the benefits of the work currently underway.

While, it remains the case that the development of specific SPVs to enable the credit unions to make investments in the sector is a matter that the credit unions themselves have to resolve, my Department will continue to be available to engage with the sector, as required.  

​QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government if the cost rental pilot project has gone out to tender; when construction is due to begin; the number of units due to be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

I refer to the reply to Question No. 603 of 19 June 2018, which sets out the position in relation to this matter. 

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government when an order under section 23 of the Local Government Act 2001 will be issued to establish new local electoral areas; his plans to make changes separate from the relevant Boundary Commission report; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

I established two independent Local Electoral Area Boundary Committees on 13 December 2017 to review and make recommendations on local electoral areas having regard to, among other things, the results of Census 2016 as well as the commitment to consider reducing the size of territorially large local electoral areas as set out in A Programme for Partnership Government (May 2016).  The Committees were tasked with reporting to me within six months of their establishment and, last week, I received both reports within the required timeframe.  These reports are now published on my Department's website at the following links:

http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/local_electoral_area_boundary_committee_no.1_report_2018.pdf,

http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/local_electoral_area_boundary_committee_no.2_report_2018.pdf.

Work will now commence within my Department on the preparation of the necessary orders to give effect to the Committees' recommendations in relation to local electoral areas.  It is anticipated that these orders will be made in the Autumn of this year.  The local electoral areas to be specified in these orders, and the number of members to be elected for each electoral area, will apply at the next local elections which are due to be held in late May 2019 in tandem with the elections for the 2019-2024 European Parliament.

​QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government if the cost rental pilot project has gone out to tender; when construction is due to begin; the number of units due to be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY



The Government is determined to make cost rental a major part of the Irish housing system, similar to the role that it plays in many European countries. Under the cost rental approach, rents are set at levels to recover construction costs and to facilitate the management and administration of developments, with only a minimal amount of retained earnings included.

The pilot project is currently being progressed by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, at Enniskerry Road, in conjunction with the Housing Agency and Approved Housing Bodies (AHB), using land owned by the Housing Agency.  Delivering 50 cost rental units as part of a 150-home development, this pilot is providing very valuable learning to inform the wider roll-out of the cost rental model.

The development of local authority sites for cost rental homes must comply with the Government’s Capital Works Management Framework and procurement rules, the objectives of which are to ensure greater cost certainty, better value for money, and financial accountability.

Planning permission for the Enniskerry Road project is in place, and I expect that the development will go out to tender in the coming weeks, with a site start later this year.

​QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the new guidelines his Department is issuing in regard to local housing assessments needs in each local authority as outlined under the National Planning Framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

The National Planning Framework (NPF), published by Government in February 2018 under Project Ireland 2040, provides for a Housing Need Demand Assessment (HNDA) to be developed by each local authority, in a co-ordinated fashion, to support the preparation of wider statutory housing and core strategies as part of the relevant local authority development plans. 
To embed the HNDA approach in future planning and housing policy approaches, my Department intends to update existing statutory guidelines on development plans and local authority housing strategies later this year with the inclusion of a HNDA methodology, so that a strategic view is taken of a given local authority's housing requirements across all tenures and housing types.
The assessment will be undertaken by local authorities and co-ordinated by the Regional Assemblies, ensuring an effective response to the particular circumstances of metropolitan areas where city regions straddle two or more local authority areas. 
Building on their past experience in developing housing strategies and core strategies, local authorities will develop the new HNDA approach, drawing upon information on demographic, affordability and wider economic trends, coupled to the profile of the existing housing stock and its management. 

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of his plans to introduce measures to assist in financing management companies of pre-2014 multi-unit residential buildings that are found not to be in compliance with fire safety standards to undertake remedial building works; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

Under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance with the requirements of the Building Regulations, including Part B (Fire Safety), rests with the owners, designers and builders of buildings. As such, in general, building defects are matters for resolution between the contracting parties involved, the homeowner, the builder, the developer and/or their respective insurers, structural guarantee or warranty scheme. 
It is important to note that while my Department has overall responsibility for establishing and maintaining an effective regulatory framework for building standards and building control, it has no general statutory role in resolving defects in privately owned buildings, including the multi-unit residential buildings referred to, nor does it have a budget for such matters.  
However, in August 2017, my Department published a Framework for Enhancing Fire Safety in Dwellings, which is intended to be used as a guide by the owners and occupants of dwellings where fire safety deficiencies have been identified, or are a cause for concern. The Framework will also be of assistance to professional advisors, both in developing strategies to improve fire safety and in developing strategies to enable continued occupation in advance of undertaking the necessary works to ensure compliance with the relevant Building Regulations.
Where apartment buildings that are non-compliant with building regulations or defective from a fire safety perspective come to the attention of the local authority fire services, they work with management companies and other stakeholders to ensure that appropriate levels of fire safety are achieved to minimise the probability of life loss. Actions are taken on a case by case fire safety assessment.
In addition, in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy and in recognition of fears expressed for fire safety, the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management in my Department was tasked with co-ordinating a high-level Task Force to lead a re-appraisal of fire safety in Ireland.  The Task Force's report, which was published recently and is available at the following link, http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/fire_safety_in_ireland_-_report_of_the_fire_safety_task_force.pdf, makes a number of recommendations in relation to fire safety in apartment buildings, including; 
the registration of fire stopping sub-contractors;
the roles and responsibilities of Building Management Companies e.g. to review and maintain fire safety arrangements, to keep a Fire Safety Register, to advise residents on what to do in the event of a fire alarm (in particular the evacuation arrangements); and
that local authority Fire Services should offer training to Building Management      Companies on key life safety issues.
In addition, my Department has embarked on a three pronged Building Control Reform Agenda, including -
Amendments to the Building Control Regulations; 
Establishment of a shared services National Building Control Management Project; and
The development of new legislation through the Building Control (Construction Industry Register Ireland) Bill 2007.
These reforms have already brought and, through their full implementation, will continue to bring a new order and discipline to bear on construction projects, creating an enhanced culture of and focus on compliance with the Building Regulations.

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of units covered by the enhanced leasing scheme by county; the anticipated costs per annum in 2018, by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

A range of housing options are necessary to ensure a supply of accommodation to meet different types of social housing need. Harnessing the off-balance sheet potential of private investment in social housing is an important objective of the Government and the social housing targets set out in Rebuilding Ireland over the period to 2021 reflect the ambition in that regard. 
Of the 50,000 social housing homes to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, 10,000 are targeted to be leased by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) under leasing arrangements from a range of different sources, including 3,500 homes targeted using the Repair and Lease Scheme (RLS), and 6,500 homes using a  combination of the existing social housing leasing arrangements, and the new Enhanced Lease Scheme. All homes delivered under leasing arrangements, including a new Enhanced Leasing Scheme, will be funded under the Department’s Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP).  
It is intended that up to 2,000 units will be leased by Local Authorities in 2018 through a combination of the existing Long Term Leasing arrangements, the Repair and Leasing Scheme and the new Enhanced Leasing Scheme.
The new Enhanced Leasing Scheme has been developed by my Department, together with the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), the Housing Agency and local authorities, in order to harness the potential of private sector interest in social housing delivery in a new set of long-term leasing arrangements, in a manner designed to leverage off-balance sheet funding opportunities in accordance with Rebuilding Ireland objectives. The new Scheme is targeted at new build or new to the market properties to be delivered at scale and will complement the existing long-term leasing arrangements, which will continue to be available.  There are, however, a number of key differences between the existing long term lease and the enhanced lease, the purpose of which is to facilitate larger levels of private investment in social housing while ensuring that the capital investment is off balance sheet in respect of Government expenditure. 
The scheme will be governed by my Department and operated by local authorities. The Housing Agency will manage and administer the scheme on behalf of my Department and will act as a national co-ordinator. 
A call for proposals was launched on 31 January 2018 and the Housing Agency accepted submissions from interested parties until 12 April 2018. All proposals are subject to a range of criteria as set out in the “Calls for Proposals for Enhanced Long Term Social Housing Leasing Scheme” and the proposals will be assessed and marked in accordance with the terms set out therein. The Call for Proposals is available on the Housing Agency website at the following link:
https://www.housingagency.ie/News/Current-News/Enhanced-Long-Term-Social-Housing-Leasing-Scheme.aspx.
A total of 33 submissions were received from interested parties which represents strong interest from the market. The Housing Agency is currently reviewing the proposals and will complete the initial review process in the coming weeks. Of those assessed, 14 proposals were returned on the grounds that they did not meet certain minimum qualifying criteria, 4 proposals did not pass suitability or appropriateness tests and 1 proposal has been deemed withdrawn. The remaining 14 proposals are still in the assessment process or awaiting further information. 
Detailed information with respect to the numbers and locations of the units proposed for leasing under the Scheme will only be available once the individual proposals have been assessed, marked and accepted in accordance with the terms and methodology set out in the Calls for Proposals document and the respective Local Authorities have signed any Agreements for Lease arising.