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Social and Affordable Housing Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Questions (2938, 2967)

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

2938. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the spend in each of the years 2015 to 2017 and the projected spend for 2018 and 2019 on leasing, HAP and RAS agreements between local authorities and landlords by authority and type of agreement; and the number of these arrangements that are direct transfers from rent allowance arrangements. [33566/19]

View answer

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

2967. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the annual spend for 2016, 2017 and 2018 and the projected spend for 2019 and 2020 on leasing, HAP and RAS agreements between local authorities and landlords by authority and type of agreement; and the number of these arrangements that are direct transfers from rent allowance arrangements. [34303/19]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2938 and 2967 together.

The three current expenditure funded housing schemes, the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS), are critical components of the accelerated delivery of social housing envisaged under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness.

The annual cost of the three schemes to the Exchequer is made up of the continuing cost of supporting the tenancies and contracts in place at the end of the previous year, and the additional cost of the new tenancies and contracts supported over the course of the year to which the allocation relates.

SHCEP supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the long term leasing of houses and apartments from private owners, developers and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs). Properties made available under the programme are used to accommodate households from local authority waiting lists.

Details on the number of SHCEP agreements supported by my Department in 2015 to Q1 2019 are published on my Department’s website at the following link:

http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

Expenditure in respect of SHCEP for the years 2015-2018, broken down by local authority, is detailed in the table. Exchequer funding of €154.886m has been allocated to SHCEP in 2019.

At the end of Q1 2019, there were 45,915 active tenancies being supported by the HAP scheme. A breakdown of the number of households supported by HAP in each local authority area, from when the scheme began in 2014 to end 2018, is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

The Exchequer outturns for the HAP scheme in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 were €15.6m, €57.7m, €152.7m and €276.6m, respectively. Exchequer funding of €422m has been made available for the HAP scheme in 2019.

Limerick City and County Council provides a HAP transactional shared service on behalf of all local authorities. This HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages all HAP related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord. Accordingly, my Department does not recoup individual local authorities in respect of HAP rental payments in their administrative areas but rather recoups all landlord costs via the HAP SSC.

RAS places responsibility on local authorities to meet the accommodation needs of people in receipt of Rent Supplement for 18 months or longer, and who are assessed as having a long-term housing need. In the period since RAS commenced in 2005 to the end of March 2019, some 62,543 households have been transferred from Rent Supplement to RAS and other social housing options. Of this number 35,458 were housed directly under RAS.

RAS remains a significant part of the suite of social housing options available to local authorities and to those who are assessed as being in need of housing support.

At the end of Q1 2019, there were 18,697 active tenancies being supported by the RAS scheme in the 31 local authority areas. Data for the years 2011 to 2018 on the number and cost of tenancies funded under the RAS scheme, broken down by local authority, is available on my Department's website at the following link:

https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

Exchequer funding of €134 million has been provided to support the cost of RAS in 2019 and this funding will go towards supporting 600 additional RAS tenancies in 2019 and the ongoing cost of supporting continuing RAS contracts in place at the end of 2018.

The 2020 budgetary provision for specific housing programmes will be determined in the context of the forthcoming estimates process.

Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) Expenditure paid to Local Authorities in 2015 to 2018

Local Authority

2015

2016

2017

2018

CARLOW

530,205

585,327

1,302,249

1,494,692

CAVAN

64,493

196,193

428,427

429,447

CLARE

882,570

1,595,479

1,989,287

3,166,133

CORK CITY

1,107,646

1,771,180

2,219,141

2,143,900

CORK COUNTY

3,712,136

4,203,863

4,522,657

5,351,670

DONEGAL

1,248,328

1,067,305

2,076,634

1,753,686

DUBLIN CITY

7,388,093

10,345,395

14,840,312

18,425,754

DUN LAOGHAIRE/RATHDOWN

1,768,110

2,094,115

4,597,875

4,818,731

FINGAL

3,385,519

4,666,247

6,547,004

9,141,183

GALWAY CITY

1,607,240

2,315,093

3,589,992

3,490,991

GALWAY COUNTY

385,394

346,807

833,507

1,041,490

KERRY

668,351

935,162

2,106,983

2,226,036

KILDARE

1,550,610

1,430,712

3,634,286

4,943,910

KILKENNY

737,465

740,649

908,544

1,106,610

LAOIS

585,566

1,190,925

1,511,241

1,778,870

LEITRIM

9,093

65,473

77,468

72,194

LIMERICK

270,920

504,557

719,490

1,406,309

LONGFORD

147,813

356,011

515,178

642,712

LOUTH

2,646,597

3,046,688

3,610,161

6,315,022

MAYO

790,964

856,278

945,590

1,057,694

MEATH

1,211,043

1,138,730

2,754,186

4,469,123

MONAGHAN

2,262

44,782

168,962

355,335

OFFALY

943,158

1,358,477

1,957,083

1,920,541

ROSCOMMON

25,901

33,549

34,590

181,075

SLIGO

278,926

340,996

349,787

444,775

SOUTH DUBLIN

5,631,522

6,245,168

12,861,316

11,719,742

TIPPERARY

1,742,186

1629455

2,597,202

2,498,480

WATERFORD

691,391

1,078,131

1,306,809

1,808,655

WESTMEATH

1,128,189

2,006,539

1,714,383

2,093,392

WEXFORD

689,804

1,228,254

1,910,528

2,493,382

WICKLOW

318,744

576,482

938,929

965,785

TOTAL

42,150,239

53,997,022

83,569,801

99,757,319

Questions Nos. 2939 and 2940 answered with Question No. 2934.
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