It is the responsibility of each local authority, as the housing authority for its area, to identify the social housing need and to make proposals to my Department in respect of the best response to this need within the available funding. The funding provided to local authorities under my Department’s Social Housing Capital Investment Programme supports both the development of new social housing units and the acquisition of units.
Acquisition proposals are developed by local authorities and submitted to my Department on an on-going basis, particularly where there are specific social housing needs they are seeking to address and where there is good value for money available. Where such proposals are developed and submitted to my Department, they are assessed in relation to value-for-money and other criteria, and approval issues where appropriate.