Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2017
1306. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of housing units and size of the overall housing estate owned or managed by the registered voluntary housing bodies in 2016 and 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34267/17]
View answerUnder Section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992, housing authorities may provide assistance to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) for the provision and management of housing accommodation. As Minister, I am empowered to grant approved status to housing bodies for this purpose. AHBs are independent, not-for-profit organisations. They provide affordable rented housing for people who cannot afford to pay private sector rents or buy their own homes, or for particular groups, such as older people or homeless people. AHBs also include housing co-operatives, which are housing organisations controlled by their members/tenants who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions.
To date, there are 547 bodies with approved status. The register of AHBs can be found on my Department's website at:
http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/voluntary-and-cooperative-housing/register-housing-bodies-approved-status.
In 2014, my Department established an interim Regulation Committee for the AHB Sector under the auspices of the Housing Agency, which, supported by a Regulation Office based within the Agency, oversees implementation of the voluntary regulation code (VRC) for AHBs. At present, 245 AHBs have signed up to the VRC.
My Department does not hold figures on the total number of dwellings provided by AHBs. However, in its 2015 Annual Report, the Regulation Office stated that the 203 AHBs, which at that time had signed up to the VRC, had a total portfolio of 26,904 dwellings and estimated that this constituted more than 90% of the total estimated housing stock in the sector. The final figures for the 2016 Annual Report are not yet available but are likely to show an increase of around 15% in the number of registered bodies with a proportionately smaller increase in the number of dwellings, as the newer registrations mostly comprise smaller AHBs.
Rebuilding Ireland targets the delivery of 47,000 social housing units in the period to 2021. It is estimated that AHBs have the capacity to contribute around a third of these 47,000 new social housing units using a range of delivery methods, including construction, acquisitions and leasing.
Significant progress has been made by the AHB sector over the last number of years, including the delivery of 1,169 units across both capital and leasing schemes in 2016 alone. A strong pipeline of new social housing supply is also evident in the latest Rebuilding Ireland Social Housing Construction Status Report, which is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link:
http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/social-housing-construction-projects-report-2017/ .
The Report provides details of 607 social housing schemes and 10,072 associated units at various stages of development, including 249 AHB projects, with 4,209 associated units.
