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.
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QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of staff currently engaged by the housing delivery office within his Department; and the number per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY In line with the commitment under Action 2.9 of Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, a dedicated Housing Delivery Office (HDO) was established within my Department, in August 2016, to support the accelerated delivery of housing across the social and private sectors, and tenure spectrum, in an integrated and timely manner. Working with the broader Housing and Planning Divisions in my Department, other key agencies, local authorities and the construction sector, the HDO supports the roll-out of complex projects, including identifying and resolving barriers to delivery, and monitors development across key sites as they progress. At the time of its establishment, the HDO comprised a team of 4 people with extensive expertise in project management, finance, planning and local government, including staff seconded from the local government sector and the National Development Finance Agency. Having carried out a range of initial initiatives, and taking account of the fact that some assignments to the office were time-limited, the HDO was refocused in September 2017 to work more closely on supporting local housing delivery and land management. In that context, the current team is comprised of 2 civil servants with experience of housing delivery and the local government sector. In addition to this complement of staff, the HDO draws on supports from other relevant Business Units in my Department, the local authorities and other relevant public bodies. More recently, my Department has been engaging with the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) in respect of the sector's further delivery needs and, against this background, I met with Chief Executives in September 2019 to discuss plans for a newly reconfigured HDO. I expect to receive final proposals from the LGMA in this regard shortly. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the Re-Building Ireland commitment to bring forward pilot projects, beginning with Dublin City Council based on best practice and cost effectiveness taking a cross Departmental inter-agency approach to housing initiatives for older persons. REPLY Action 2.16 of Rebuilding Ireland states that my Department will bring forward pilot projects, beginning with Dublin City Council, based on best practice and cost effectiveness taking a cross Departmental / inter-agency approach to housing initiatives for older people. The aim of this Action is to examine the potential for mainstreaming best practice projects, which bring together the HSE and local authorities with designers and academic groups. Such models would cater for those who, while not requiring full nursing home care, have been assessed as having healthcare needs that can be met in the community. Work on this Action has been underway for some time now and a pathfinder project at St.Michael's Estsate, Inchicore, Dublin 8 will include 52 'living with support' homes for older people. The 'housing with support' model brings together a range of services and supports, principally relating to housing, community, social and care needs. It seeks to provide an appropriate physical and supportive environment that enables older persons to live in their own homes within their own community, thereby both promoting independence and reducing or deferring the need to move into long term residential care. The project is underpinned by a cross-Departmental inter-agency approach and involves cooperation between my Department, the Housing Agency, Dublin City Council, HSE, the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH), Circle VHA and Alone. This pilot project has been approved for funding through my Department's Capital Assistance Scheme and is currently at planning permission stage, with construction likely to commence in or around Summer 2020. In tandem with the work on the St. Michael’s project, housing initiatives for older people are also a focus of the policy statement ‘Housing Options for our Ageing Population’ which was jointly published by my Department and the Department of Health. An Implementation group, which includes a range of stakeholders, has been put in place to work on the Actions under the Statement and will be reporting to myself and to my colleague, Minister Daly, Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the roll out of choice-based letting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Choice Based Letting (CBL) is a method whereby available social housing stock is let by being openly advertised by local authorities to persons on the social housing waiting list. This allows qualified applicants to 'register an interest' in available homes. Applicants can act on their own initiative to respond to adverts and express an interest in dwellings that they would like to live in, rather than waiting for an authority to offer them a dwelling. This approach offers more choice and involvement for applicant households in selecting a new home, thereby reducing the likelihood of a refusal, and helping to build sustainable tenancies and stable communities. The Social Housing Allocation (Amendment) Regulations 2016 required all local authorities, if they had not already done so, to provide for CBL as a method of allocation for social housing in their allocation schemes by the end of 2016. The way in which CBL is implemented, including decisions on which properties are to be offered through it, is a matter for the individual authority concerned. However, it must be done in accordance with the relevant regulations and their own scheme of priority. Given the clear benefits offered by CBL, my Department continues to liaise with the local authorities to ensure that it is implemented as widely as possible across the country and has undertaken a number of surveys in both 2017 and 2018 to determine its uptake and impact. Data garnered through these surveys has shown that over half of all local authorities are operating a CBL system while others are in the process of running pilot schemes with a view to wider roll out in their respective areas. Of those authorities that are operating CBL the expressed view is that it is having a positive effect on how they allocate houses. The data also shows that where CBL is in operation the rate of refusals has dropped. The survey for 2019 is currently underway. My Department hosted a workshop on CBL with representatives from the local authority sector on 15 November 2019. The aim of the workshop was to bring relevant officials from local authorities together and to provide a forum to discuss the potential for increasing the use of CBL across the State. The workshop also provided an opportunity to those authorities who, for various reasons, are not operating CBL to discuss the issues arising for their authorities. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status the cost rental pilot project schemes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Acknowledging that renters in Dublin and other major urban centres are currently facing significant housing access and affordability challenges, the Government is committed to the introduction of a Cost Rental sector in Ireland. My Department is currently developing a national policy approach for this new form of rental tenure. This work includes the development of two pathfinder projects on local authority-owned sites, from which lessons will be drawn to inform an optimum model for Cost Rental delivery at the national level. The first of these projects in Enniskerry Road, is currently under construction. Work on this development of 155 units began in July 2019. It comprises 105 homes for social housing and 50 two bedroomed Cost Rental homes. The Cost Rental units, which are scheduled for completion in 2021, will be offered for rental at €1,200 per month. Land for the development is being provided by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to help achieve these competitive rents, which represent a very significant reduction when compared with market rents in the Stepaside area. My Department is also providing €4.5 million is Serviced Sites Funding to support infrastructure costs associated with the development. The other pathfinder project is at Emmet Road in Inchicore, including the site of the former St Michael's Estate. Dublin City Council, the site owner, is continuing to make progress on the design and planning work for this project. DCC has appointed a dedicated project manager and a project team to move the project forward, and a development framework plan has recently been completed. It is projected that the site can accommodate 484 homes in a high-quality mixed tenure development, including 375 Cost Rental apartments. The remaining units will be provided for social housing. DCC is engaging with my Department according to the best practice guidelines set out in the Capital Works Management Framework, and is procuring an architect-led integrated design team which will be responsible for designing the scheme and taking it as far as the planning stage. I am determined that work will continue to progress at pace on this project and that lessons learned from the financial modelling for this location are applied more broadly. In terms of the Cost Rental agenda more generally, the development of a national policy approach is being progressed by working group led by my Department and also involving the Land Development Agency, the Housing Agency, and other bodies. This will provide for a sustainable financing structure and allow us to commence the delivery of Cost Rental homes at scale. Detailed operational and eligibility criteria for Cost Rental will be informed by this evidence building and policy work. The work of the group will also be assisted by consultancy and research support which will be undertaken by the European Investment Bank on our behalf. The EIB has extensive international experience in affordable housing, and is providing technical assistance in assessing the potential market for Cost Rental in Ireland. The development of a national model for Cost Rental will be concluded well in advance of the completion of construction work on the homes at the first pathfinder site on Enniskerry Road. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the average turnaround time for a vacant property to be re-occupied on a local authority by local authority basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Statistics in relation to social housing stock 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 the average time taken to re-tenant a dwelling. The most recent report, relating to 2018, is available on the NOAC website at the following link: http://noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NOAC-Performance-Indicator-Report-2018-1.pdf. My Department is continuing to engage with local authorities, to support them in returning both short and longer-term vacant properties to use as swiftly as possible. Elected Councils also have a role to play in supporting this work by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and maintenance, utilising the housing rental income available to them. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of sites under the land aggregation scheme; the number of strategic management plans put in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY The Land Aggregation Scheme (LAGS) was introduced in 2010, to assist in the gradual unwinding of loans taken out by housing authorities to purchase land for the social and affordable housing investment programme. This was in cases where loans were due to mature and where it was considered unlikely that land would be developed in the short to medium term. A total of 73 sites with a total area of circa 243 hectares were accepted into the Scheme before it was discontinued in 2013. Under the Scheme, ownership of LAGS sites is transferred to the Housing Agency which is tasked under Rebuilding Ireland with bringing forward these sites for development. To set out a path to achieve housing development on LAGS lands, the Housing Agency published its LAGS Strategic Development and Management Plan in February 2018. This set out development proposals for all 73 sites, along with a further 13 sites also in their ownership. The plan identified 36 LAGS Sites as being Suitable for Immediate Development. The remaining 37 sites were categorised as Secondary Sites. The plan can be found on the Housing Agency website at https://www.housingagency.ie/publications/land-aggregation-scheme-strategic-development-and-management-plan. In terms of the development of the sites, the Housing Agency is prioritising those which are already serviced and which have with the most potential to deliver housing at scale in the short to medium term. Currently 19 projects are being progressed across 17 LAGS sites which will deliver 788 social homes. Details of progress on these and other developments can be tracked through the Social Housing Construction Status Report. The latest report (Q2 2019) is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-social-housing-construction-status-report-for-q2-2019-2/. Moreover, following on from the publication of the Land Aggregation Scheme Strategic Development and Management Plan, Expressions of Interest were sought from Approved Housing Bodies to work with the Agency to develop a number of sites not yet under development. Consequently, 18 further LAGS sites are now the subject of discussions between the Agency and a number of Approved Housing Bodies regarding development proposals for these sites. These 18 sites include 8 sites deemed Suitable for Immediate Development and 10 sites categorised as Secondary sites. See tables for below for details of sites and AHB’s. The Land Development Agency is also in discussions with the Housing Agency regarding the transfer of 3 LAGS sites 'suitable for immediate development' at Devoy Barracks, Naas Co Kildare, Hampton Balbriggan and Hackettstown Skerries in Fingal in order to provide for the development of these sites in a selective, targeted way that will further boost housing supply. In addition, 6 LAGS sites 'suitable for immediate development' are benefitting from Departmental funding which will help relieve critical infrastructural blockages to enable the accelerated delivery of housing. This includes 3 sites at Mount Avenue, Dundalk, Gibbet Hill Gracedieu Waterford, and Lissywollen in Westmeath which have been approved for funding of €6.48m under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) which will stimulate the delivery of over 650 mixed tenure type homes. The other 3 sites ‘suitable for immediate development’ at Enniskery Road, Dun Laoghaire, St Joseph’s Road Mallow, Cork and Hackettstown in Fingal have received funding approval of €9.5m under the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF) to provide the necessary infrastructure so that more affordable homes discounted on open market prices can be delivered. As a result I envisage that 219 affordable homes will be provided on these sites. My Department will continue to work with the Housing Agency, the relevant local authorities, the Land Development Agency and Approved Housing Bodies with a view to delivering the optimum housing mix from Land Aggregation Scheme sites. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the Re-Building Ireland commitment to create pilot competitions, focusing on three distinct areas of smart technologies in housing for older persons, adaptation of existing houses to meet the needs of older persons and life-time communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY In January 2017, I launched the Rebuilding Ireland Homes for Smart Ageing Universal Design Challenge. The Homes for Smart Ageing Universal Design Challenge was an initiative under the Rebuilding Ireland programme (Action 2.19) and the Programme of Actions for Smart Ageing, which aims to stimulate and encourage the design and construction industries to be innovative in designing and delivering housing solutions for older people. The total Design Challenge prize fund of €100,000 was funded by my Department and project managed by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design. Over 60 high-quality entries were received from around the country, with five commended entries reaching the final round where they received funding of €10,000 and support to develop their idea further. In June 2017, I announced the winner of the Homes for Smart Ageing Universal Design Challenge during an award ceremony at Dublin Castle. The winner, who received €50,000, was The Abhaile Project. The Abhaile Project developed an innovative new model to support older homeowners to reconfigure their family-sized homes by creating an independent living area suitable for the older homeowner, eliminating the need to use the stairs; and creating an affordable one-bedroomed rental accommodation upstairs. Using a Universal Design approach, this promotes an efficient way to use our existing housing stock by carving much needed new one-bedroomed rental capacity from existing housing stock in mature urban areas, allowing the homeowner to live securely and independently downstairs, whilst promoting interaction with the person living upstairs, thereby reducing isolation. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the Re-Building Ireland commitment to holding a competition held to champion best practice, efficient and cost effective design to enable the delivery of high quality homes in sustainable communities at an affordable level. REPLY Action 3.11 of Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan commits to a competition to champion best practice, efficient and cost effective design to enable the delivery of high quality homes in sustainable communities at an affordable level. In late 2016, a call for proposals from local authorities for a suitable site for the design competition was issued. Following an evaluation process the successful site was identified as Old Whitechurch Road in Cork City. In parallel, Cork City Council applied, qualified and secured funding under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) for the removal of overhead electricity lines and installation of a spine access route. Cork City Council is advancing this enabling infrastructure works on the site as a separate contract, this is due to commence on site shortly. Cork City Council in conjunction with my Department are in the process of finalising the competition document, which will be tendered shortly. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the progress made to move towards enforcement of quality standards in rental accommodation on a regional basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY The Strategy for the Rental Sector, published in December 2016, set out a series of measures to be introduced to ensure the quality of private rental accommodation by strengthening the applicable standards and improving the inspection and enforcement systems. The Strategy acknowledged the overall low rates of inspection of the private rental stock and low rates of compliance, as well as the need for greater consistency in approach to implementation of the regulations across local authorities. The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 specify requirements in relation to a range of matters, such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light and safety of gas, oil and electrical supply. My Department also published a guidance document to assist and support local authorities in implementing these Regulations. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with these regulations and responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations rests with the relevant local authority. The Rental Strategy recognises the need for additional resources to be provided to local authorities to aid increased inspections of properties and ensure greater compliance with the Regulations. Provision was made for €2.5 million of Exchequer funding to be made available to local authorities in 2018 for this purpose, increasing to €4.5 million in 2019 and increasing further again, under Budget 2020, to €6m next year, with the intention of ultimately achieving a targeted inspection coverage of 25% of rental properties annually by 2021. In 2018, 28,806 inspections were carried out, including repeat or follow up inspections in some cases. This was a 47% increase on the 19,645 inspections carried out in 2017, and I expect final data for this year to show a further significant increase. My Department will continue to work with local authorities to ensure that momentum is maintained towards the 25% target by 2021. |
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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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