Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 March 2019
1382. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding provided to approved housing bodies by county per annum since its inception for housing unit acquisition; the number of units acquired by county per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12999/19]
View answer1383. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding provided to AHBs by county basis per annum since its inception for housing unit construction; the number of units constructed under CALF by county per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13000/19]
View answer1384. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding provided to AHBs by county per annum since its inception for housing unit refurbishment; the number of units refurbished under CALF by county per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13001/19]
View answer1385. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the amount of capital advance leasing facility funding applications received from approved housing bodies by county basis per annum since its inception; the number approved; the number of housing units associated with the application; the number refused; the number of housing units associated with the application; the number with additional information requests; the number of housing units associated with the application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13002/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1382 to 1385, inclusive, together.
Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are making an important contribution to social housing delivery, as envisaged in Rebuilding Ireland. My Department and local authorities administer a number of funding programmes to assist AHBs with the cost of building, buying and leasing new social houses. All funding is conditional on the properties being made available to households on local authority waiting lists.
Under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), my Department, together with local authorities, can support AHBs to construct, purchase or lease housing units and make them available for social housing. The housing units are secured under long-term leases/availability arrangements between local authorities and AHBs, the cost of which is recouped to local authorities by my Department. The Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) funding is capital support provided to AHBs by local authorities to facilitate the funding of construction, acquisition or refurbishment of new social housing units, including units acquired through the establishment of the Housing Agency Acquisition Fund.
The capital advance is repayable by the AHB to the local authority at the end of a payment and availability agreement, usually 30 years. All proposals for CALF are submitted to my Department by AHBs for review, to ensure that each project complies with the terms of the CALF and that there are sufficient funds available.
To date, 26 AHBs have availed of CALF to secure homes for social housing use. Funding eligibility is aligned to those AHBs signed up to and demonstrating compliance with the Voluntary Regulation Code.
The CALF scheme delivers housing through close collaboration between AHBs and local authorities. This collaborative approach ensures that there is local authority support for the project prior to submission to my Department. Applications for funding for a scheme or individual homes, which have not progressed, may have fallen out of the process for various reasons and applications may also be resubmitted with revisions or by another AHB. Some 1,000 applications (with some 12,000 associated dwellings) for CALF have been made since 2011.
The CALF was introduced on 24 June 2011 and only a small number of AHBs availed of the facility during the period 2011 to 2013, delivering a total of 498 additional social housing homes under the scheme. Only over the last number of years has the sector moved to accessing private funding/ borrowing and moving away from full exchequer support. Since 2014, the number of homes delivered using CALF support has increased significantly year on year, along with Exchequer funding to support AHBs to access finance for the provision of new social housing. CALF expenditure in 2018 was €120.8 million; this included €2.18 million, which was offset against Local Property Tax funding, and 2,315 additional social housing homes were completed in 2018, as a result of CALF assistance. A provision of €94.4 million has been provided for the scheme in 2019.
At the end of Q4 2018, there were some 3,600 homes in the CALF acquisition and build pipeline, which will be delivered out to 2022. To date €220 million had been loaned by local authorities to AHBs and a further €231 million has been approved for lending but has not been drawn down.
Owing to the nature of the CALF scheme, home delivery does not always arise in the same year as expenditure being incurred. Schemes delivered under phased programmes may cross a number of payment periods.
Delivery under CALF since 2014 is set out in the following table:
|
Delivery Type |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
|
CALF Build |
16 |
43 |
283 |
854 |
1,540 |
|
CALF Acquisition (including Housing Agency Acquisitions since 2017) |
303 |
331 |
283 |
403 |
775 |
|
Total |
319 |
374 |
566 |
1,257 |
2,315 |
Details of the annual social housing output for each of the local authority areas, as well as the specific output under each of the funding programmes, are available on my Department's website at the following link: www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.
