Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 September 2014
25. Deputy Seamus Healy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when he proposes to introduce a new local authority house purchase scheme; if he will give an outline of the main features of the scheme; if he will include approved housing bodies (voluntary housing agencies) in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34314/14]
View answerPart 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 provides for a new scheme for the tenant purchase of existing local authority houses. This scheme will replace the 1995 and 2011 tenant purchase schemes under section 90 of the Housing Act 1966, which closed in June 2014 and June 2013, respectively. The new scheme will be open to local authority tenants in receipt of social housing support for a prescribed period of at least one year who have not previously purchased a house under a tenant purchase scheme and who have a minimum prescribed annual income. The new scheme will operate along the lines of the incremental purchase model currently being applied in purchase schemes for local authority apartments and new local authority houses under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, which involve discounts for purchasers linked to household income and a discount-related charge on the property that reduces over a period unless the house is resold or the purchaser fails to comply with conditions of the sale.
I intend to make the necessary statutory instruments later this year to enable the new scheme to come into operation.
Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are organisations approved under section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 to provide social housing support in conjunction with local authorities. Since the late 1980s, close to 25,000 units of accommodation have been provided by AHBs under various funding schemes. Under the terms of these funding schemes, AHBs are the de facto owners of the properties and are required to make them available for social renting for the duration of the mortgage or, as the case may be, the availability agreement. I have no proposals to include dwellings owned by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in the new tenant purchase scheme.
