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Housing Policy

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 December 2019

Wednesday, 11 December 2019

Questions (308)

Brian Stanley

Question:

308. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government his plans to introduce cost-to-rental housing as part of future local authority or approved housing body housing developments in counties Laois and Offaly. [51981/19]

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Written answers

In order to support the delivery of discounted homes to buy or rent, this Government has committed €310 million under the Serviced Sites Fund, from 2019 to 2021, to provide infrastructure to support the delivery of some 6,200 homes. To date, funding of €127 million, in support of 35 projects in 14 local authority areas, has been allocated for infrastructure works on sites that will support the delivery of almost 3,200 homes. Details of all SSF funded infrastructure projects can be found on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following links:

https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-approves-10-local-authority-sites-affordable-housing-serviced-sites-fund/.

https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-approves-funding-of-e84m-to-support-delivery-of-1770-affordable-homes-under-the-ssf/.

The Government is committed to the introduction of a Cost Rental sector in Ireland. Cost Rental is housing where the rents charged cover the cost of delivering, managing, and maintaining the homes only. With the resulting rents significantly below market levels, households on?moderate?incomes will have access to a more affordable and stable form of rental tenure.

Cost Rental homes may be provided by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, or other bodies as deemed appropriate. Together with delivering more affordable and predictable rents, Cost Rental can make a sustainable impact on national competitiveness. Over the longer term, as homes are delivered at scale, it is envisaged that Cost Rental will have a stabilising effect on the broader private rental market.

It should be noted that Cost Rental is not designed to replace traditional social housing provision for low-income households, which remains a priority for the Government. Cost Rental is a new tenure option for Ireland, and is one of several schemes which my Department is using to deliver on the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan and ultimately provide more affordable housing.

Although my Department is producing a national framework for Cost Rental, which will allow its implementation across the country, the initial pilots have been targeted at large urban centres. These areas have the highest rent levels, driven by increasing demand and present the most acute affordability issues for households. For this reason, my Department is currently supporting initial Cost Rental pilot projects at Emmet Road in Inchicore and Enniskerry Road in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The latter has already commenced construction, and is being delivered in partnership with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the Respond and Tuath Approved Housing Bodies; the first homes are anticipated to come on stream from 2021.

The selection of further sites for Cost Rental will be informed largely by the financial and operational model that will emerge from the evidence building currently underway.

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