Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2017
35. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to implement measures to make vacant houses and sites available for social and affordable housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33431/17]
View answerA range of measures are being taken under Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness to increase housing supply overall, with the aim of creating a functioning and sustainable housing system which can meet housing demand at more affordable prices.
While building new homes is a key element of Rebuilding Ireland, another effective way to meet housing needs is to achieve optimum occupancy of the existing housing stock, whether social or private housing. In this context, Pillar 5 of the Action Plan is specifically focused on "Utilising Existing Housing Stock", with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree possible. In this regard, Action 5.1 of Rebuilding Ireland commits to the development of a National Vacant Housing Re-Use Strategy, informed by Census 2016 data.
To this end, the Housing Agency established a working group comprising senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and from the Housing Agency itself to inform the Strategy. My Department has received the output from the work of this Group and is presently engaging with key Departments and Agencies to consider the analysis and agree on the recommended actions, prior to publication.
I would like to see as much ambition as possible in bringing as many viable vacant properties back into use at an early stage. I intend, as part of the targeted review of Rebuilding Ireland, to explore what further actions can be taken and what new ideas we can bring to bear, in close liaison with Ministerial colleagues. If budgetary measures are needed to reinforce the ambition, this may delay the publication of the Vacant Homes Strategy. But this will not delay the commencement of important work at local level in gathering more accurate and up-to-date information on where vacant properties are and who owns them, so that we can facilitate the re-use of many vacant properties, particularly in our cities and towns.
Ahead of finalisation of the Strategy, it is important to note that my Department has already introduced a number of significant measures to incentivise the increased use of vacant housing stock to help meet the needs of those in receipt of social housing assistance. These initiatives include
- the Repair and Leasing Scheme, which is targeted at owners of vacant properties who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their properties up to the required standard for rental property,
- the Buy and Renew Scheme, which allows local authorities and AHBs to approach owners of vacant, privately-owned houses in need of repair or remediation, with the option to either lease and repair, or to buy and repair, the dwelling, and
- the €70m Housing Agency Acquisitions Fund, to establish a revolving fund to acquire some 1,600 units from banks and investment companies over the period to 2020 for social housing use.
In relation to vacancy and existing social housing stock, my Department has introduced the Voids and Derelicts programmes to provide additional support to local authorities in remediating more seriously derelict social houses, and bring them back into use for social housing tenants. Collectively, these two programmes have already seen the remediation of some 7,200 units between 2014 and 2016, at an estimated total cost of €68 million. This is on top of units completed by the local authorities themselves outside of the funding support from my Department.
