Charlie McConalogue
Question:649. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the status of the new affordable housing scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53056/18]
View answerTuesday, 18 December 2018
Questions (649)
Written answers
I commenced the relevant provisions of Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 on 18 June 2018 to provide a statutory basis for the delivery of affordable housing for purchase. Part 5 contains significant detail on the procedures and operation of the new Affordable Purchase Scheme.
The primary legislation will be supported by associated regulations, which are currently being finalised, following extensive consultation between my Department, the Housing Agency and local authorities. The regulations, once finalised, together with guidance, will be issued to local authorities.
In order to support the affordable housing programmes of local authorities, the Government has committed €310 million, over the three years 2019 to 2021, under the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF) announced as part of Budget 2019. The funding is available for key facilitating infrastructure, on public lands, to support the provision of affordable homes to purchase or rent. I envisage a maximum amount of SSF funding of €50,000 per affordable home and on this basis at least 6,200 affordable homes could be facilitated.
I have recently issued approval in principle for ten infrastructure projects across five local authority areas, in Dublin and Cork, under the first call for proposals. The first tranche of funding of €43 million will enable delivery of 1,400 affordable homes on local authority lands. I expect infrastructure works on these projects to begin as soon as possible in 2019 and delivery of affordable homes from early 2020 onwards.
More broadly, all local authorities have carried out economic assessments of the requirement for affordable housing in their areas and the viability to deliver such affordable housing from their sites. My Department hosted a workshop for local authorities last month to discuss these issues. A second call for proposals under the Fund will be made shortly. The scope of that call will be influenced by the information received from local authorities, as part of the aforementioned assessments, which are currently being examined in my Department.