Section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 enables housing authorities, inter alia , to provide assistance to approved housing bodies in respect of the provision of housing. Approved Housing Bodies have been supported through two capital funding schemes, the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) and the Capital Loan and Subsidy Scheme (CLSS).
Under CAS funding of up to 100% of the approved cost is available for the provision of accommodation to meet the needs of persons with specific categories of housing need including older people, people with an intellectual, physical or mental health disability, the homeless, returning emigrants and victims of domestic violence. My Department’s involvement with CAS relates primarily to the provision of funds for individual projects. The detailed administration of the scheme, and the certification that projects comply with the terms and conditions of the scheme, are the responsibility of the relevant local authority.
Under the CLSS funding of up to 100% of the approved cost of projects was provided by the Housing Finance Agency, through the local authorities, to approved housing bodies for the provision of accommodation for low-income families and persons with specific categories of housing need. Following the decision in 2009 to terminate the CLSS no new projects will be considered for approval. However, my Department continues to provide support for the management and maintenance cost s of the accommodation funded under CLSS , through the payment of an annual allowance of up to €543 per occupied dwelling.
The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2009 introduced a new approach to the sale of social housing whereby social housing tenants, including tenants of approved housing bodies, could acquire new local authority houses and existing apartments under the Incremental Purchase Scheme (IPS). The details of this scheme are available on my Department’s website www.environ.ie.
There is no provision at present for the purchase of individual houses by tenants of approved housing bodies. My Department is currently in consultation with the approved housing body sector regarding the development of an enabling regulatory framework to support the expanded role for the sector as envisaged in the Government’s 2011 Housing Policy Statement. I expect that this framework will provide support and assurance both to the sector itself and to its external partners and will underline its status as a viable and attractive investment opportunity for financial institutions. In conjunction with the development of this framework my Department will examine a range of issues around the long-term financing of the sector including how best to use the equity accrued in approved housing body housing stock to, for instance, leverage additional new supply; the sale of existing stock to tenants is one of a range of options in this regard.
