Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2018
678. Deputy Eugene Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of persons who have taken up the vacant housing repair and lease scheme by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7304/18]
View answer679. Deputy Eugene Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the budget expenditure for the vacant housing repair and lease scheme, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7305/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 678 and 679 together.
The Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) has been developed to assist private property owners and local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to harness the accommodation potential that exists in certain vacant dwellings across Ireland. The RLS was established on a pilot basis in Waterford and Carlow local authorities in October 2016 and expanded nationwide from 23 February 2017.
The scheme is targeted at owners of vacant dwellings who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their dwellings up to the required standard for rental property. Subject to the suitability of the dwelling for social housing, and the agreement of the property owner, the cost of the necessary repairs will be met upfront by the local authority or an approved housing body (AHB).
Provisional 2017 outputs, across the range of delivery methods available to local authorities and approved housing bodies, were published on 15 January 2018 and are available on my Department’s website at the following link:
www.housing.gov.ie/housing/rebuilding-ireland/social-housing-delivery-2017-ministers-statement.
My Department is currently validating data from local authorities in order to report detailed progress by local authority on the RLS in the final quarter of 2017. This will be published shortly. However, I can confirm that at the end of 2017, a total of 820 applications had been received under the scheme. Local authorities were engaging with the property owners in relation to 573 properties, 31 agreements for lease had been signed and 9 homes had been delivered and tenanted. A detailed breakdown of the RLS scheme data up to end Q3 2017 is available on my Department’s website at the following link:
www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.
While my Department is currently finalising detailed output data across each of the social housing delivery programmes in 2017, it is already clear that the RLS has not yet delivered the level of new social housing homes envisaged. I have reviewed the operation of the scheme, as part of the review of Rebuilding Ireland, and I have concluded that the scheme has significant potential but there are areas where it can be improved to make it more attractive and effective. At the Housing Summit held on 22 January 2018, local authority Chief Executives were advised that, from 1 February 2018, a number of key changes are being made to the scheme. These include:
- a reduction in the minimum lease term required from 10 to 5 years;
- increasing the proportion of market rent available to property owners where they take on more responsibilities under the tenancy, meaning that up to 92% of market rent will be available; and
- provision of additional funding for property owners, over and above the current €40,000 limit, where the dwelling is a bedsit type dwelling being brought into compliance with the Standards for Rented Houses Regulations and made available for social housing.
In total, my Department spent €196,385 on the Repair and Leasing Scheme in 2017. I am making €32 million available for the scheme in 2018 and I expect local authorities and approved housing bodies to continue to implement the scheme locally and to achieve the target of 800 new properties this year.
