Patricia Ryan
Question:102. Deputy Patricia Ryan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will report on any recent progress with Project Tosaigh; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11920/22]
View answerWednesday, 2 March 2022
Questions (102)
Written answers
The Land Development Agency’s (LDA) Project Tosaigh is a market engagement initiative to unlock land with full planning permission that is not being developed by private sector owners due to financing and other constraints and use it to accelerate the supply of affordable housing. It allows the LDA to supplement the State lands it is already working on and accelerate the delivery of cost rental and affordable purchase homes by unlocking private land that is ready to be developed but where construction has stalled or not commenced.
The target is delivery of 5,000 new homes by 2026 for affordable cost rental or sale to eligible households under affordable purchase arrangements.
It is characterised by:
- Activation of planning consents that have not commenced or are proceeding more slowly than optimal;
- Achieving delivery both in the near term, as well as providing a 5-year programme of delivery;
- An open and transparent process, compliant with procurement rules;
- A focus on delivery of affordable homes with some social homes to be secured if conditions allow, while securing value for money for the State.
Given the scale of ambition and having taken market soundings, the LDA is working on a dual track approach to running Project Tosaigh.
The first phase of Project Tosaigh involves an initial expressions of interest (EoI) process, launched on 12 November 2021, to engage builders and landowners in forward purchase agreements, with the intention of securing stock in certain developments in the shorter term. This process is targeting lot sizes of c. 150 homes upwards in the Greater Dublin Area (including Dublin City, South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, Fingal, Meath, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow), Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford via forward purchasing agreements.
A very encouraging level of response was achieved and the LDA are working though the large numbers of proposals. Engagement meetings in respect of schemes with the potential to deliver some units (to practical completion) in 2022 have been prioritised. Broad indications of schemes with potential to progress and delivery timelines are expected to be available in the coming weeks.
In parallel, schemes submitted where delivery would be expected to begin in 2023 and thereafter are being reviewed and engagements with parties in respect of those schemes are now underway.