Dessie Ellis
Question:232. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide the portion of the capital budget intended for social housing builds in 2015. [24168/15]
View answerWednesday, 17 June 2015
Questions (232, 233)
Dessie Ellis
Question:233. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of local authority houses to be built in each of the years 2015 to 2017. [24169/15]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 232 and 233 together.
Under my Department’s Social Housing Capital Investment Programme, funding is provided to housing authorities to increase their supply of social housing stock through the construction and acquisition of houses and apartments. This year €171.825 million has been made available for the capital delivery of additional social housing units by local authorities, of which €43.039 million will be self-funded by certain local authorities through local property tax receipts.
On 5 May 2015, I announced a major Social Housing construction programme with €312m investment, comprising over 100 projects and 1,700 housing units. Full details, including specifics of the projects to be progressed, the funding allocated and the number of units to be delivered across all local authorities, are available on my Department’s website at the following link: http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,41340,en.htm.
I stated at the time that this announcement was part of the first phase of direct-build projects under the Government’s Social Housing Strategy and that further assessments of build proposals are being carried which will result in the approval of additional projects, details of which will be announced in due course.
It should also be borne in mind that the local authority building programme is just one of a range of mechanisms through which social housing need is to be met. Social housing targets have been set for each local authority out to 2017 and are available on my Department’s website, along with the provisional funding allocations, at the following link: http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,41016,en.htm.