Vol. 555 No. 1
24 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government when it is intended to extend the serviced land initiative promised in An Agreed Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17365/02]
The serviced land initiative is one of a broad range of measures being implemented by the Government to increase housing supply. To date 267 individual schemes have been approved for funding by my Department. These schemes will provide water services to more than 170,000 housing sites. The latest returns from local authorities up to June 2002 indicate that 142 schemes, representing 94,000 sites, have been completed or are at construction. The returns project that by the end of the year the corresponding numbers of schemes and sites will have increased to 202 and 137,000, respectively.
Targeted initiatives and the commitment of significant Exchequer funding in recent years have led to a significant increase in the supply of residential serviced land. The last survey of housing land availability conducted in 2001 indicated that there was about five to six years supply of serviced residential land nationally and in the greater Dublin area. The 2002 survey of housing land availability is currently under way. When the results of this survey are available, consideration will be given to the manner in which the serviced land initiative should be extended.
