Vol. 407 No. 9
18 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for the Environment when the proposed Housing Bill will be published; the specific proposals in his scheme for social housing which can be implemented without legislative provision; when he will give detailed instructions to local authorities on this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
21 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Environment if he will outline the proposals in A Plan for Social Housing to which he will give effect before the enactment of new housing legislation; and when these measures will be implemented.
72 Mr. Moynihan asked the Minister for the Environment when he proposes to authorise local authorities to implement the terms of the social housing policy.
183 Mr. Ryan asked the Minister for the Environment if he will indicate when details of the proposed shared ownership scheme will be announced; and if legislation is required for this.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 18, 21, 72 and 183 together.
The preparation of the heads of the new housing Bill is proceeding as a matter or urgency in my Department. I am not in a position, at this stage, to give a precise date for the publication of the Bill. However, most of the measures contained in the policy document, A Plan for Social Housing which I published on 14 February last can be, and are being, implemented without new primary legislation and where such legislation is required this is clearly indicated in the document.
The up-to-date position regarding the implementation of each of the principal measures in the plan is as follows:
1. House Purchase and Improvement Loans: Increased loan and income limits, effective from 14 February 1991, were formally notified to local authorities on 26 February 1991.
2. Voluntary Housing Scheme: A circular notifying the increased grant limits and other improvements to the voluntary housing scheme, and the new scheme for communal facilities issued to local authorities on 11 April 1991. The new limits and so on apply to works commenced since 14 February.
3. Rental Subsidy for Voluntary Housing: A circular giving the full operational details of the scheme issued to local authorities on 3 May 1991. Detailed discussions have been held with representatives of voluntary housing bodies. In fact, one project has already been approved under the scheme and others in various locations are in preparation.
4. Housing Sites: A circular giving the terms of a scheme for the provision of sites by local authorities to qualified individuals and co-operatives at low or nominal prices issued to local authorities on 1 May 1991.
5. Mortgage Allowance for Tenants: This £3,300 allowance is available in cases where contracts to purchase private houses are entered into by local authority tenants or tenant purchasers after 14 February 1991. There have been discussions with the financial institutions regarding the operation of this scheme. The circular giving operational details will issue to local authorities this week.
6. Shared Ownership System: As stated in the plan, this scheme, which is new to this country, requires legislation. Expert legal advice has been sought on its possible implementation on an interim basis pending the legislation. If it proves possible to devise interim arrangements, local authorities should be in a position to deal with applications in a matter of weeks.
7. Improvements-Extensions instead of Local Authority Housing: Local authority managers have already been requested to examine waiting lists to ascertain cases for which this scheme would be appropriate. A circular notifying allocations and authorising local authorities to proceed with works under the scheme issued on 3 May 1991. Expert legal advice is being sought by the Department on the form of agreement to be entered into between the authority and the applicant and local authorities will be advised when this is available. There is no reason, however, why implementation cannot be pressed ahead on the basis of the circular already issued.
8. Bathrooms Sub-Programme: A circular giving allocations and other details of the bathrooms scheme for local authority dwellings issued on 26 April 1991.
9. Homeless People: Revised guidelines, including new financial arrangements in relation to the accommodation needs of homeless people, issued to local authorities on 3 May 1991.
10. Travelling People: A circular reminding local authorities of their responsibilities in relation to the accommodation needs of travelling people and asking each authority to draw up a clearly defined set of proposals to meet identified needs issued to local authorities on 1 May 1991.
11. Private Rented Accommodation: As stated in the plan, the very significant safeguards announced for private tenants will require new legislation and will be provided for in the new housing Bill.
A Plan for Social Housing is a major policy document of great significance in the social housing area and has been acknowledged as such in many quarters.
A load of bluff.
Deputy Allen should not interrupt.
The plan contains new thinking on the approach to the provision of decent and suitable housing for households that are not in a position to provide it from their own resources. It contains radical new measures to improve access to housing, to expand housing choice and to improve the position of both public and private tenants. Although basically a policy document, it contains a considerable amount of detail in relation to the various new schemes proposed.
As is evident from this reply, considerable progress has already been made in advancing the implementation of the various measures proposed. The House can be assured that remaining action necessary on the part of my Department to secure the full and speedy implementation of the plan will continue to be pursued with all possible vigour.
Can I put it to the Minister that what he has read to the House is a rehash of the letter circulated last week, that in reality the entire document is nothing but a smokescreen to hide the fact that 25,000 people are in urgent need of housing and that in specific cases in my county of Wexford some 687 people will be accommodated with 39 houses this year? As regards the specifics of the plan, which is a Lego-land policy to distort the realities of the inability of this Government and this Minister to build houses for the people in need, when will the Bill come before this House? It is totally unacceptable for a plan announced nearly nine weeks ago now to be still at the heads of Bill stage in relation to the implementation of its most important detail.
I appeal for brevity for obvious reasons. It is a priority question.
In relation to the shared equity or shared ownership proposals, when the country is clamouring for information, when individuals who are desperate are seeking information from councillors and councils as to when details will be given to local authorities——
Sorry, Deputy Howlin, the question is going on too long and clearly to the disadvantage of other priority questions.
Two priorities are being taken together in the 15 minutes. I will conclude by simply asking——
There is another Deputy involved.
Will the Minister accept that he has failed fundamentally in his first responsibility, to provide houses for the 25,000 people urgently and desperately in need and who will not be in any way relieved by the nonsense contained in these ephemeral proposals?
The Deputy is quite right when he says the plan covers a wide range of different proposals and most of these proposals, as I said, require only secondary legislation to be done by regulations under existing Housing Acts. As I pointed out, the detailed circulars have issued on ten of the 11 principal policy areas. The matters have been discussed with the managers of the various local authorities and housing officers, and that policy will continue too. I suggest there is normally a time for the publication of major new directions in a key area such as housing and the making of arrangements for implementation on the ground. Extensive discussions with voluntary housing organisations and financial institutions have been concluded and the matters are being processed as quickly as possible. In the one area of the shared ownership it was quite clearly signalled from the very start in the publication of the social housing plan that that would require a legislative framework. We are seeking to put that in place if at all possible on an interim basis to allow us to get on with it, but certainly it is getting top priority in the formulation of a Housing Bill. It is a major step forward and I think the Deputy will agree that substantially increased funding has been made available for housing this year, and it is my hope that in the very near future we will be able to get the Housing Bill through, which will enable the couple of outstanding items of the plan to be fully implemented.
Will the Minister confirm that since he published the plan three months ago not a single site has been provided, not a single extension built, not a single person has qualified for the mortgage subsidy or for shared ownership, not a single new dwelling has been provided as a result of this plan? Will he further confirm that at the present rate of progress the plan he published three months ago will not provide a single additional unit of accommodation in 1991 and that the circulars he has referred to which have been sent to local authorities contain little more than the details set out in the plan itself, that his policy for dealing with the housing crisis is now in tatters, that the housing crisis is now out of control and that he has no answer to offer to the numbers of people, now approaching 30,000, who are waiting for housing in this State?
In the first instance, one cannot say precisely what the total on the waiting list might be until we get the final results from the local authorities following the summary.
And you have them since last——
There is a further question down on the Order Paper dealing with that matter and I will give precisely the number of returns I have. Certainly I do not have the returns from all the authorities as requested of them, and I am pursuing that matter with them. Of course, in the two-pronged approach we are taking, the local authority building programme is continuing.
It is a joke.
We also have increased the money as far as voluntary housing is concerned. We had some 500 units completed last year under that heading and I expect that to be more this year. All these headings are being pursued vigorously. The housing plan is being received favourably, with considerable interest being shown from every single housing authority in the country. With the issue of the circulars and, we hope, the completion of a model that can be used on an interim basis instead of the legislation for the shared ownership scheme, we expect to have that in place at an early date. One way or the other, the plan is a fundamental change in thinking and will, as stated in the plan itself, lead to a very substantial increase in the number of units to be provided over the next few years, the figure being 5,000 from the plan itself with a possible 5,000 other units from the building programme and casual vacancies. That will be a very substantial way of dealing with housing, plus the increased funding which is substantially increased this year over last year's allocation.
