Major Urban Housing Delivery Sites (MUHDS) programme

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government that status of the 15 to 20 key pathfinder sites with a proven capability to deliver a significant scaling-up of new homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

As part of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, the Major Urban Housing Delivery Sites (MUHDS) programme was launched in November 2016. This initiative provides an administrative framework to support local authorities involved in the delivery of housing in major urban centres in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick.  These key strategic housing sites, details of which are set out in the Table below, were identified as having a capacity to deliver a significant scale of new homes, in conjunction with local authorities and other key stakeholders such as Irish Water, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, etc.  Development on many of these sites has been progressed with the support of funding streams such as the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) and the Serviced Sites Fund and through the MUHDS regional and national fora which were established to improve co-ordination between facilitating interests.
LIHAF currently provides funding support to projects on 13 MUHDS sites. This funding covers the cost of facilitating infrastructure and services to enable the delivery of private, social and more affordable dwellings.  Details of the MUHDS sites which are benefitting from LIHAF funding can be found on the Rebuilding Ireland website at https://rebuildingireland.ie/lihaf/. A ‘Story Map’ facility is also available to highlight the infrastructure delivery and the associated housing delivery for MUHDS sites and LIHAF projects.  This can be found at https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/muhds-lihaf-story-map/.
Accelerating delivery of housing for the private, social and rented sectors is a key priority for the Government. The solutions to this challenge are wide-ranging and require a number of immediate-, medium- and long-term actions to increase delivery and address underlying structural issues that, up to now, have been obstacles to creating a more stable and sustainable housing market.
Progress on (MUHD) sites continues to be monitored through the MUHDS structures at a national and local level.