QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the review of the tenant purchase scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY In line with the commitment given in the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness, a review of the operation of the first 12 months of the Tenant Purchase (Incremental) Scheme has been completed and a full report has been prepared setting out findings and recommendations. I intend to bring a comprehensive package of social housing reform measures to Government in the near future and the review of the Tenant Purchase Scheme will be published as part of that process.
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QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of staff currently employed by the housing procurement within his Department; the number employed per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY My Department is not directly involved in housing procurement and as such there are no staff employed in such procurement within the Department. The procurement of housing as social homes is a matter for the Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies. The Housing Delivery Division in my Department supports a significant number of actions under the Government's Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness - Rebuilding Ireland. This includes Homelessness and Social Inclusion Supports, Traveller Accommodation, Affordability and Cost Rental, the oversight and management of the Social Housing Capital and Current Programmes. The Division is also responsible for implementation and management of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). In addition to leading social housing programme delivery, the Division also has responsibility for planning, management and oversight of social housing finance and expenditure as well as an advisory role on Built Environment issues. In this regard, the Division operates an approval process in accordance with the Capital Works Management Framework and the Public Spending Code to ensure quality social housing, value for money and the creation of sustainable communities. Both the Capital Works Management Framework and the Public Spending Code require compliance with EU and national public procurement requirements. The Division currently has a full-time equivalent staffing complement of 136.99 QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government his views on the development of a regional sewage treatment plant at Clonshaugh, County Dublin proposed in the Greater Dublin Drainage project on behalf of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. In addition, under Section 30 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), as Minister, I am precluded from exercising power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is or may be concerned. Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone on a dedicated number, 1890 578 578 QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the progress of the working group established to review sustainable rural housing guidelines following the Flemish Decree; if the reports prepared by it will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Following engagement between the European Commission and my Department regarding the European Court of Justice ruling in the "Flemish Decree" case, a working group was established to review and, where necessary, recommend changes to the 2005 Planning Guidelines on Sustainable Rural Housing, issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. The working group comprises senior officials from the Planning Division of my Department and senior officials from the Planning Divisions of local authorities, nominated by the local government sector. Taking account of the engagement with the European Commission regarding revisions to the 2005 Rural Housing Guidelines and subject to the completion of the ongoing deliberations by the working group, I will be in a position to finalise and issue to planning authorities revisions to the 2005 Guidelines that take account of the relevant European Court of Justice judgment QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the reason for a use it or lose it criteria attached to fast-track planning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY As part of the actions under the Government's Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness – Rebuilding Ireland, the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 (the Act) introduced new streamlined arrangements to enable planning applications for strategic housing developments (SHDs) of 100 housing units or more, or student accommodation or shared accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more, to be made directly to An Bord Pleanála for determination. A Strategic Housing Development Review Group was established in June 2019 to review the operation and effectiveness of the SHD process and the possible extension of the arrangements until 31 December 2021, the end date of Rebuilding Ireland. The Review Group Report was submitted to my Department on 24 September 2019. A report on my conclusions of the review, as well as the Review Group Report, has been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, as required by the Act and copies of both reports are available on my Department's website. The Report of the Review Group acknowledges that the SHD arrangements have generally been a success in meeting their objectives to contribute to addressing housing undersupply issues by providing a fast-track development consent process aimed at incentivising developers to bring forward applications for large-scale housing developments. Notwithstanding the positive contribution the SHD arrangements have made, the Review Group noted that only 37% of SHD planning permissions have commenced development and suggests that, subject to further monitoring of activation rates, consideration could be given to the introduction of a policy measure such as a “use-it-or-lose-it” provision to incentivise the commencement of works post the granting of planning permission. I have reflected on the views of the Review Group on the rate of activation of SHD sites, and I consider it appropriate that developers should be sufficiently motivated to commence development on foot of an SHD permission in a timely manner given the benefits the SHD arrangements provide. Therefore, I consider that it would be appropriate to introduce a "use it or lose it" measure in this regard and I intend bringing forward the necessary legislation to address this matter. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the funding available for the Rebuilding Ireland home loan; the drawdown to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY When the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan scheme was initially being developed, it was estimated that the drawdown of loans would be approximately €200 million over three years. However, this loan product has proved to be more successful than initially anticipated. In the context of the scheme’s success my Department engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Finance with regard to the allocation for 2019. I engaged early as I said I would. While discussions commenced in October 2018 on additional funding, the first tranche of €200m was only fully drawn down in August of this year. My Department wrote to all 31 local authorities on 15 August 2019 sanctioning an additional €363 million in funding for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan. This brings total funding for the Loan to over €563 million for 2018 and 2019 combined. My Department publishes information on the overall number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Local authority approval means that an official letter of offer has been sent to a borrower (and therefore relates to a specific property and loan amount). Information on the RIHL for Quarter 1 2019, including in relation to the number and value of mortgage approvals and drawdowns, is available on the Department's website at the following link: http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/statistics/house-prices-loans-and-profile-borrowers/local-authority-loan-activity. The data for Quarter 2 2019 will be available in the coming weeks. Number of units anticipated to be secured through long-term lease in each of the years 2019 to 20215/11/2019 QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of units anticipated to be secured through long-term lease in each of the years 2019 to 2021; the amount to be spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Over the course of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, the Government is committed to meeting the housing needs of over 138,000 households. This will be achieved through blended delivery, involving increasing the social housing stock by 50,000 homes, through build, acquisition and leasing programmes, and supporting some 88,000 further households through the Housing Assistance Payment and the Rental Accommodation Scheme. Of the 50,000 social housing homes to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, over 10,000 homes will be leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies under leasing arrangements from a range of different sources, including direct leasing by local authorities and approved housing bodies, the Repair and Leasing Scheme, the Mortgage to Rent Scheme and Enhanced Leasing. The exact blend of delivery under leasing in any given year will depend on the availability of existing stock and new homes in any particular county. A total of 2,130 dwellings are targeted to be delivered under leasing in 2019; the target increases to 2,631 dwellings in 2020 and is set at 2,450 dwellings in 2021. It should be noted that progress by each local authority against target under Rebuilding Ireland is published quarterly on my Department’s website. Leasing is funded under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), which also meets the current costs of dwellings delivered by approved housing bodies under the CALF and Housing Agency Acquisitions Programmes. The SHCEP budget for 2019 is just under €155 million. An allocation of €191 million has been secured for SHCEP in 2020, which is an increase of €36 million on the 2019 allocation. The allocation for SHCEP in 2021 will form part of the annual estimates process. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of specific staff allocated to each local authority affected by short-term letting regulations to implement the new rules; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY On 4 June 2019, my Department wrote to planning authorities with Rent Pressure Zone designations (RPZs) seeking estimated resource funding requirements for the implementation and enforcement of the new short-term letting provisions, to cover the period until the end of 2021. My Department wrote again to planning authorities on 2 July and 26 September seeking new or revised estimates following my designation of additional RPZs in certain parts of the country, which extended the application of the short-term letting provisions to these areas. The additional resources sought primarily comprise additional enforcement staff, but also include, inter alia, associated legal costs and IT costs. Since then, further communication has taken place between my Department and all relevant planning authorities seeking clarification and refinement of the resourcing requests, as well as in relation to the practical implementation of the short-term letting provisions. Under Budget 2020, €2.5m is being made available to support planning authorities in the implementation and enforcement of the short-term letting legislation. My Department has now secured sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for this new funding provision. My Department will be contacting local authorities shortly regarding both the recoupment of eligible expenditure, in respect in the latter part of 2019 and budgets for 2020. Pending this, planning authorities are enforcing the new provisions, including the recruitment of new staff, if required, from within their existing resources QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the steps he has taken to strengthen the use of compulsory purchase powers by local authorities to acquire units for social and affordable housing purposes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Local authorities have a range of existing legislative powers available to them to deal with derelict and under-utilised properties in their functional areas, for example, through the compulsory purchase powers and under Derelict Sites and Housing legislation. This legislation is kept under constant review. There is a clear focus on increasing the supply of housing available both in the private and social context and to this end, looking at our existing housing stock and whether we are making efficient and effective use of it, is a key element of Rebuilding Ireland. The key in this regard, is the implementation of the National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy. Every local authority has now prepared a Vacant Homes Action Plan and has designated vacant home officers to co-ordinate local actions to address vacancy and to identify priority ‘vacancy hot-spot areas’ and properties that can be quickly brought back into residential use. Since the launch of Rebuilding Ireland, just under 1,200 vacant homes have been re-introduced to the liveable social housing stock, primarily through a range of vacancy initiatives. Local authorities are also working to bring homes back into use by acquiring dwellings in unfinished estates. Overall, we have also seen an estimated 11,032 homes come out of long term vacancy in the housing sector from Q3 2016 to Q2 2019 inclusive (of which 7,551 were units which were reconnected to the electricity grid after at least 2 years, whilst 3,481 relate to units connected to the electricity grid which were in unfinished housing estates). A proportion of these may have led to compulsory purchase orders in some instances but this wasn’t necessary. Based on the most recent survey of local authorities, the vacant site levy has moved at least 42 sites into development. The derelict site provisions have also been brought into line with the vacant site levy provisions. In 2018, An Bord Pleanála (the Board) concluded 9 compulsory acquisition cases taken by local authorities under the Derelict Sites Act and which were referred to the Board for confirmation. These recovered properties aid us in the ongoing effort to meet our commitments under Rebuilding Ireland for ensuring that Ireland’s existing housing stock is used to the greatest extent possible. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the timeframe for the review group of establishing a special purpose vehicle to enable credit union funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY The Programme for a Partnership Government recognises the potential role that credit unions can play in housing finance and supported the efforts of the Registrar of Credit Unions at the Central Bank to gradually lift current lending restrictions as appropriate, including for housing. Credit Union bodies have set out proposed means by which funding could be provided by Credit Unions to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) for the development of social housing. This follows on from the amendments introduced by the Central Bank to the regulatory regime within which Credit Unions operate. Along with my colleague, Minister English, and officials from my Department and the Department of Finance, I have met with the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) and the Credit Union Development Association (CUDA) to examine how their sector can assist in the area of financing social housing delivery. Minister English met with CUDA as recently as 23 October 2019. Throughout the discussions with the Credit Unions’ representative bodies, my Department has emphasised that while it has provided technical assistance regarding the mechanisms for funding social housing, it is a matter for the Credit Unions themselves to set up special purpose vehicles to enable them to invest in the sector. For this reason, my Department referred the Credit Unions’ representative bodies to the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) with a view to both sectors sharing, as far as practical, the benefits of their respective work in this area, including the work undertaken by the ICSH on the development of special purpose vehicles for social housing financing purposes. The work of this group was supported by grant funding from my Department. In parallel with the work undertaken by this group, the ICSH along with six Tier 3 AHBs have worked with financial advisors to establish a funding mechanism/vehicle which would identify suitable sources of non-state finance which could fund the delivery of social housing by AHBs. To date market testing has revealed good interest in lending to the sector from various lenders including Banks, Institutional investors and the Credit Union sector. This work has involved seeking sources of lending based on best value for money. To date, one AHB has set up a special purpose vehicle; two AHBs have sourced private finance from a private institution and two AHBs are currently examining the possibility of establishing a structure to work collectively. The Credit Union sector is one potential funder whose terms are assessed as part of the process of market testing to establish best value for money and optimum terms and conditions from lenders. It is now a matter for the relevant parties to agree a workable and mutually acceptable approach. |
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All Parliamentary Questions I make about Housing, Planning and Local Government and their answers can be viewed in this section Archives
December 2019
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