Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 September 2021
112. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total approved lending to approved housing bodies for the delivery of social housing in 2020 and to date in 2021; the number of social homes delivered with that borrowing in 2020; and the target number to be delivered in 2021. [47023/21]
View answerApproved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are making and continue to make an important contribution to social housing delivery. My Department and local authorities administer a number of funding programmes to assist AHBs with the cost of building, buying and leasing new social housing units.
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 and the Mortgage to Rent scheme. My Department can provide CALF funding of up to 30% or up to 40% in the case of the Mortgage to Rent scheme for eligible projects, with the housing units provided to local authorities for social housing use under long-term lease arrangements known as Payment and Availability Agreements. A nominal interest rate of 2% fixed per annum is charged by the local authority on the initial capital amount. Repayments on either the capital or interest are not required during the term of the loan (between 10 and 30 years), although where an AHB chooses to, repayments can be made during the term. At the end of the term, the outstanding capital amount plus the interest accrued, is owed and repayable to the local authority. The local authority issues the CALF monies to the AHB and the local authority, in turn, recoups same from the Department. The remainder of the capital cost is sourced by the AHB through other borrowings to which the local authorities are not party. 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.
My Department does not hold information on the loan agreements under CALF, as the loan agreement, is between the local authority and the relevant AHB. Accordingly, information on the number and value of CALF loans, including the balance owning, is held by the relevant local authorities. The value and term of each loan varies by project.
The following table shows the 2020 delivery and expenditure to Local Authorities by my Department.
2020 delivery supported by CALF Funding
|
Delivery Stream |
Units |
Expenditure |
|
AHB -MTR |
117 |
€6.697m |
|
AHB CALF(incl HAA) |
2549 |
€190.22m |
The total budgetary allocation for CALF for 2021 is €220m of which €137.8m had been administered to Local Authorities by the end of August. In addition the 2021 budgetary allocation for the Mortgage to Rent scheme is €23m which also includes provision for the Local Authority Mortgage to Rent Scheme.
It is important to note that owing to the nature of the CALF, delivery of new housing does not always arise in the same year as expenditure and projects delivered under phased programmes may cross a number of payment periods.
Details of the 2021 funding provision for CALF and MTR and related output target are set out in the 2021 Revised Estimates (REV) which is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/e20037-revised-estimates/#2021
Accelerating the delivery of social housing, with an increased emphasis on direct build is a key objective for my Department, and the Housing For All strategy contains an ambitious target of delivering more than 90,000 social homes to 2030.
