The Social Housing Strategy 2020 is a comprehensive response to the need for social housing and targets the provision of over 110,000 social housing units to 2020, through the delivery of some 35,500 new social housing units and meeting the housing needs of some 75,000 households through the Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme. The cost to the Exchequer of building, acquiring, or leasing the 35,5 00 new social units over the period to 2020 under the various financing models, in place and under development, is estimated to be €3.8 billion. The strategy is available on my Department’s website at the following link:
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/PublicationsDocuments/FileDownLoad,39622,en.pdf.
Table 1 in the Strategy is based on the three year capital provision for housing announced in Budget 2015 and the one year of agreed current provision. The remaining years of capital and current are projected on the basis of programmed growth to reach the final delivery figure of 35,500 additional social housing units.
In the context of the implementation of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 , €2.2 billion in funding was announced in Budget 2015, to be invested in a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes. This funding will be provided through direct Exchequer investment of €1.5 billion, €300 million of Public Private Partnership capital investment and through the establishment of a housing financial vehicle with €400 million of private finance to be channelled to Approved Housing Bodies for the acquisition and development of social housing.
The recently published capital investment plan, Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021, provides further evidence of the Government’s commitment to social housing, with a commitment to provide Exchequer capital funding of almost €3 billion in support of the Strategy’s targets to 2021.
Funding for the delivery of targets under specific capital and current programmes over the lifetime of the Strategy will be determined as part of the annual Estimates process. In 2015, the total housing provision will result in almost €800 million being provided under the various housing programmes, of which some €119 million is being self-funded by certain local authorities arising from the introduction of Local Property Tax.
To date in 2015, over €248.4 million in Exchequer funding has been expended and a further €62.8m in respect of housing services has been self-funded by local authorities from Local Property Tax. Given the nature of housing expenditure, draw-down by local authorities is typically focussed towards the end of the year, with most of the budget being expended in the final quarter.
