Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021
809. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the funding streams available to local authorities for the refurbishment of vacant local authority homes in need of minor and major repairs; and the criteria and process for same. [20467/21]
View answerThe management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966.
Notwithstanding this, my Department provides annual funding support to local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-let under the Voids Programme. This funding was introduced originally to tackle long term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted to support authorities to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock. This funding programme was introduced in 2014 and has to the end of 2020 returned 16,102 properties to use with funding of €229m from my Department.
My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work remediating vacant social housing properties in 2021. In preparation for this year’s programme a correspondence issued to all local authorities requesting they provide figures on the total number of vacant units within their social housing stock as at January 2021. This process will help inform funding requirements and allocations for this year’s Voids programme. A further communication in respect of the 2021 voids programme detailing the funding streams available will issue to all local authorities shortly.
My Departments Energy Efficiency Programme also provides funding support to local authorities for retrofitting works that can be carried out on both vacant and tenanted local authority properties. The budget for this programme has increased substantially in 2021 to €65m and allocations have issued to local authorities in this regard.
It is important to note that my Department and local authorities are working to transition from a largely response and voids based approach to housing stock management and maintenance to a planned maintenance approach. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes which will be supported by my Department’s stock improvement funding programmes.
