I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:
"Dáil Éireann notes the increase in the level of local authority housing needs and welcomes:
–the Government's commitment to an expanded housing programme by local auth orities and the voluntary housing sector and the significantly increased financial resources provided by the Government for these programmes in 1999:
–the action being taken by the Government to increase and accelerate the supply of land for housing including social and affordable housing;
and commends the introduction by the Government of the first ever multiannual programme for the provision of local authority housing to run for the coming four years and to deliver an additional 22,000 local authority dwellings.".
I welcome the opportunity to set out the Government's social housing strategy and to ask the House to support the measures being taken by the Government in this vitally important area.
It is well said that those who don't learn from mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them. I wonder how much thought the proponents of this motion have given to the implications of their demands for 10,000 new houses to be built each year by local authorities for the next four years. I know that I will be putting local authorities to the pin of their collar to deliver 22,000 new local authority rented dwellings over the next four years, together with a greatly expanded voluntary housing programme, as well as securing greatly increased output under the affordable housing scheme and the range of other social and affordable housing measures already in train.
Leaving aside, however, the practical constraints, the effect of the suggested crash programme of local authority house building would inevitably see a return to the provision of large, soulless, peripheral local authority housing estates remote from good public transport, amenities or jobs. This is not a policy which the Government will countenance and I will return to these aspects later. However, first, I want to speak about the Government's overall housing policy.
The Government has a credible and coherent housing strategy which is designed to increase housing supply, to improve access to housing for lower income groups and to improve the housing conditions of local authority tenants and other key groups such as the elderly, homeless persons and the disabled. In its action programme, the Government set out its key housing priorities, including a continuing house construction programme by local authorities and voluntary groups, refurbishment of existing inadequate housing, improvement and extension of social housing schemes, maximum co-ordination of housing policy under my Department and local authorities developing serviced sites to accelerate the supply of new houses to meet the rising demands of those who need housing. Since the Government took office we have made remarkable progress, particularly in tackling escalating house prices, increasing housing output and in widening and strengthening social housing measures.
I have published today the results of the assessments of housing needs undertaken by local authorities at the end of March last. These indicate that a total of 39,176 households were in need of local authority housing compared with 27,427 in March 1996. In addition, the housing needs of a further 6,400 households were considered by local authorities as being most suitably met by other housing options, including voluntary housing, rent supplementation and other social housing schemes, compared to a total of 6,047 households similarly assessed in 1996.
Generally speaking, the needs in county council and county borough areas were found to have increased by about 50 per cent on average while the level of increase in urban district council areas averaged 23 per cent. However, 20 authorities, and these were mostly urban district councils, recorded a reduction in the numbers on their waiting lists. The spatial variation of the changing need profile throughout the country reveals particularly large increases in the Dublin area, Limerick County Council, Mayo, Galway and Waterford.
The Government fully recognises that there is an increased need for local authority housing as evidenced by the results of the assessments. Because of the importance of these assessments, my Department has devoted considerable effort to collating the results from all local authorities to bring together the overall picture of total local authority housing needs and I was pleased to be in a position to release the overall findings earlier today. This is considerably earlier than was the case with the 1996 assessment where results were not published until the middle of December.
The 1999 assessment also identifies, separately, households consisting of one adult and one or more children. This category accounts for about 17,000 households, or 43 per cent of the entire net need and approximately 11,000 of these households consist of one adult and one child. The assessment identifies 622 traveller households in need of permanent accommodation in residential caravan parks and halting sites. This is in addition to the 1,406 traveller households assessed as seeking local authority housing. A more comprehensive survey of homelessness utilising the broader definition of homeless persons, which includes those who have no accommodation as well as those in hostels and in health board accommodation, was undertaken on this occasion and the results indicate that on this basis there are some 5,200 homeless persons. The number in 1996 was 2,500 but this is not directly comparable with the recent findings.
I am concerned about the large waiting lists that now exist in many local authority areas and I accept there is a real need for an expanded local authority housing programme. However, the programme which I have set out is appropriate to needs and is, above all, achievable without serious adverse consequences for the tenants. Before I move on from the matter of housing needs assessments I believe it is useful to go behind these assessments a little further to obtain a better understanding of how long people are on waiting lists and how long people spend on the waiting lists before they are housed by local authorities.
In general, the recent assessments, indicate that over 60 per cent of households are less than two years on waiting lists and this proportion is just slightly up on the position in 1996. It is, of course, accepted that there are now more households on waiting lists. In a recent sample survey of lettings of houses by five different local authorities carried out by my Department it was found that 56 per cent of the households that were housed in the first six months of this year were less than one year on the waiting lists, 22 per cent were between one and two years, 10 per cent were between two and three years and only 7 per cent of those housed during the period were more than four years on the lists. This gives one a slightly different perspective on waiting lists and how long it takes for people to secure housing from their local authority. Local authorities will make over 7,000 new lettings this year. This means that those in the greatest need of housing have a very good prospect of receiving local authority housing within a reasonable period.
Demand has increased dramatically in all housing sectors, exceeding all earlier predictions. Availability of land for housing is critical to increasing the supply of housing, which is the cornerstone of the Government's strategy to meeting demand. It is essential to bring forward serviced land for housing more quickly, to deal effectively with infrastructural constraints or delays to development and to maximise the potential of available land. This applies as much to land for local authority housing as it does to land for private housing.
We are addressing the land issue in a number of ways. One of these is to identify any land in State ownership that may be surplus to requirements and see if it can be made available quickly to local authorities for the provision of social and affordable housing. However, the extent to which use of State lands can contribute to meeting total social and affordable housing needs must be kept in perspective. While it does not offer the prospect of a quick fix to the issue of land supply, I am anxious to ensure that whatever potential exists in this area is fully exploited.
Local authorities in areas where pressure on land supply is greatest have a key role, in the first instance, in identifying sites currently owned by public bodies which would have potential for development of social or affordable housing. Where such land is identified, my Department will do everything possible to facilitate the securing of such lands for housing purposes through liaison with the relevant Government Departments. We are, indeed, taking a proactive role in this regard. For example, my Department has been in contact with the Department of Defence regarding the potential use of sites in former Army barracks. We have met a very positive response from the Department of Defence and a number of promising sites have been identified. There are certain issues to be resolved in relation to some of these so it would not be appropriate for me to go into further detail at this stage. However, I am optimistic that they will yield results.
One point I must make clear is that there is no question of expecting the bodies concerned to give up lands at bargain basement rates. They must operate on the basis of getting good value for any assets they dispose of and any lands provided will have to be purchased at mutually acceptable prices. The key issue is to ensure that local authorities get the opportunity to secure suitable sites on acceptable terms.
The Churches, as holders of quite significant amounts of serviced land in built up areas, can also make a worthwhile contribution to increasing housing supply in areas where need is most acute and where housing can be developed relatively quickly. I want to acknowledge generously that over the years the Churches and religious orders have made many sites available cheaply or free of charge for the provision of sheltered and other forms of housing for the socially disadvantaged. It is because of their record in doing so that I feel confident that we will have a very co-operative response from the Churches to the current need for social and affordable housing which we are now experiencing. I recognise that the Churches have responsibilities to observe in making decisions about their property assets. Hence, the public authorities realise that they will have to pay a fair price for any Church lands or property made available for social and affordable housing.
Of course, the use of State or institutional land is just one of the avenues being pursued in the drive to maximise and accelerate the availability of land for housing. Within a few months of coming into office the Government launched the serviced land initiative. Funding for this initiative was substantially augmented last year to a total of £39 million Exchequer funding. This, in conjunction with local development levies, will mean a total investment of some £100 million. The serviced land initiative will yield around 100,000 additional housing sites by the end of 2000. This will have a major impact in increasing the supply of land useable for housing, whether local authority, social or private. I expect that 99 schemes will commence construction in 1999, producing over 60,000 serviced sites. An important point is that, in general, once these schemes are in progress, construction work on houses can start and run in parallel with land servicing. Consequently, the serviced land initiative will have an impact in terms of housing output in the short term as well as in the more medium term.
My Department took a further important initiative earlier this year to address possible infrastructural constraints on housing development by requesting local authorities to permit, where appropriate and subject to necessary environmental safeguards, the use of temporary water treatment facilities. This provides an effective and acceptable means of allowing development to proceed in any instance where housing would otherwise be delayed while awaiting the completion of major water and sewerage infrastructures.
The housing supply provisions in the recently published Planning and Development Bill, 1999, will play a major role in underpinning the future supply of social and affordable housing. The Bill provides for the formulation of comprehensive local authority housing strategies. On the basis of these strategies, the development plans must indicate that up to 20 per cent of land zoned for housing is to be made available for social or affordable housing at its existing use value. These proposals are designed to meet a clearly identified concern of public policy and the common good. The measures are well targeted and clearly defined and will have regard to the prevailing and anticipated housing situation in any area. The impact of the measures is proportionate to the issue being addressed and they have been prepared having regard to the constitutional principles of fairness, equality and proportionality.
The inclusion for the first time of housing in the forthcoming National Development Plan reflects the Government's commitment to addressing housing needs. Provision will be made for the increased level of the local authority housing programme as well as greatly increased social and affordable housing in the lifetime of the plan. Provision of housing-related infrastructural investment is also an important element both to alleviate existing bottlenecks on housing development and to underpin provision for housing needs in the medium and long term through integrated infrastructural investment.
Increased availability of land for housing needs is to be accompanied by optimal use of that scarce resource. Increased residential density is crucial in this regard in promoting sustainable development, helping to prevent further urban sprawl and promoting greater efficiency in public transport and other public services. Local authorities and An Bord Pleanála were asked to implement the Planning Guidelines on Housing Densities when these were issued in draft form earlier this year. They will now be required under law to have regard to the definitive guidelines which were published last week following a process of public consultation.
Increased residential densities have an important role to play in supporting the provision of affordable housing. The local authority affordable housing scheme, which I launched last March, is an important new initiative to help bridge the affordability gap for aspiring house purchasers. It is directly linked to the delivery of additional new houses by local authorities and, therefore, will not adversely affect house prices. A substantial number of these houses are already in the pipeline and some will be ready later this year. I expect that some 1,400 homes will be provided under the scheme by the end of the year 2000.
Capital investment in the local authority housing programme is at its highest ever level. This allocation was significantly increased by the Government well in advance of the needs assessment being undertaken. The £230 million being provided for the local authority housing programme this year represents an increase of almost £35 million on the 1998 provision. The capital provision for this programme is now four times greater than that provided in 1993 and I have secured increases of 18 per cent in each of the past two years. The high level of funding will enable local authorities to meet commitments in their ongoing programmes and to fund the enhanced programme of 4,500 new starts in 1999, the highest number in 13 years. The substantially increased capital provision for this year is a clear indication of the Government's commitment to local authority housing as the mainstay of the overall response to social housing needs. Lest anyone be in doubt that £230 million is the extent of the Government's investment in housing, the total investment by Government in all the housing programmes is £520 million this year alone.
The Government has advanced further in this regard and I have introduced a new multi-annual local authority housing programme of 22,000 houses over the next four years. This is clearly an ambitious programme but one which is designed to deliver quality housing in a good environment suited to the needs of tenants.
At my request local authorities have already set in train the necessary forward planning process and have started making preparations for their multi-annual programmes. This includes the assembly of necessary land banks to meet their needs over the coming years. It is open to local authorities to acquire lands by way of compulsory purchase order if this is what is required to secure lands. My Department has also held a series of regional workshops recently with key personnel in local authorities to emphasise the need to accelerate local authority housing output over the next four years.
What all this means is that I will, this month, allocate starts for the next four years and it will then be a matter for each authority to proceed with their four year programme which will be agreed with the Department. The funding profile agreed with the Department will secure the necessary financial commitment for each authority's programme. I am confident the enhanced multi-annual local authority housing programme, together with output from the complementary social and affordable housing measures, including voluntary housing, along with vacancies occurring in existing houses, will provide accommodation for over 50,000 households during the coming four years.
The local authority housing programme also plays an important part in the regeneration of urban areas. The most prominent example is Ballymun where the development of new housing is central to the social and economic regeneration of the area as a whole. The funding which has been provided this year to get the redevelopment under way is concrete evidence of the Government's commitment to improve the housing and economic prospects of an area in Dublin that has regrettably been neglected over the years. The previous Government provided no funding whatever for this major redevelopment. It may have approved the proposal in principle but it did not provide funding. The Government is committed to providing £350 million for the regeneration of Ballymun over the coming years. This clearly marks out our commitment to a project that is unique in terms of Irish social housing and in terms of the comprehensive scale and level of funding. The lessons of the past have showed that a planned and integrated development is essential to the success of a regeneration project and I look forward to advancing the comprehensive redevelopment of Ballymun.
We are also determined to maintain maximum progress under the remedial works programme throughout the country which continues to provide practical assistance to local authorities to improve the standards of inadequate housing and assist in the rehabilitation of run down estates.
Although local authorities have traditionally been the dominant force in social housing provision, the voluntary housing sector has made an important contribution to alleviate social housing need. However, the increased cost of construction experienced in recent years put output under the voluntary housing capital assistance scheme at serious risk. On becoming Minister, I was determined to ensure increased social housing provision and my commitment to this scheme has been demonstrated in practice through increasing the limits of assistance twice within a one year period. Since the inception of the scheme these represented the most significant increase – up to 67 per cent – in the level of funding. These increases have arrested the decline in voluntary housing output and I am glad to note at this stage it appears likely that voluntary housing output in 1999 will be around 50 per cent higher than output last year.