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Housing Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 April 2022

Wednesday, 6 April 2022

Questions (73)

Richard Bruton

Question:

73. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of proposals from each of the local authorities and from the Land Development Agency for housing developments, either social or affordable homes, that are awaiting approval from his Department; the aggregate number of homes involved; and the average turnaround time for approvals. [18518/22]

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Written answers

My Department administers a number of funding support schemes to support local authority delivery of social and affordable housing. Each scheme, depending on its objectives and delivery mechanism, has a process in place whereby local authorities secure approval for funding support for particular developments.

For affordable housing, the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) provides exchequer funding support to local authorities to allow the delivery of housing at affordable prices or rents on local authority lands or via advance purchase arrangements with developers for new housing on developer-owned land. As a new funding mechanism, replacing the Serviced Sites Fund, the AHF has been open for applications for funding from local authorities since 1st September 2021. Several funding applications have been made since then and, for those that have been approved, the average turnaround time was 8 weeks.

There are no applications for funding in respect of affordable housing to be delivered by the Land Development Agency (LDA) with my Department for approval at this time. There are currently seven applications to the Affordable Housing Fund from three Local Authorities with my Department for approval. The aggregate number of homes that are awaiting approval is 502 units. In general, applications would be expected to be turned around in 8 weeks.

In respect of social housing development applications from local authorities currently with the Department for approval, the information requested is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
My Department administers a number of funding schemes to support local authority delivery of social housing. Each scheme, depending on its objectives and delivery mechanism, has a process in place whereby local authorities secure approval for funding for social housing projects.
The overall pre-construction process for local authority capital-funded, social housing build projects involves local authorities undertaking a range of work including site investigations, needs assessment, planning under Part 8 including community and local elected members’ consultations, project design and procurement of design teams and contractors under the Capital Works Management Framework. The majority of local authority projects are assessed and approved by my Department via a 4-stage process and this assessment of projects by my Department within that process over the last 12 months averaged 24 weeks.
Local authorities also have the option of using a single stage approval process for social housing projects up to €6 million in value and the pre-construction process in such cases can be reduced by approximately eight weeks. Local authorities also deliver social housing via turnkey contracts with developers and the approval process for such projects would ordinarily be from two to six weeks as the proposals ordinarily have planning approval, have an agreed design and have a contractor in place.
Specific challenges can arise with individual projects that will impact on the average time for particular local authorities in the pre-construction process, such as challenges within the planning process, difficulties with sites, etc. To support the capacity of local authorities to develop and deliver social housing build projects, I have approved funding for an additional 250 posts in local authority housing teams. Furthermore, in January 2022, I published a new Design Manual for Quality Housing and a Review of the Pre-Construction Processes undertaken in cooperation with the local authority and Approved Housing Body (AHB) sectors. These initiatives are important to improve the quality, cost-effectiveness and pace of delivery of social homes.
The table below outlines the social housing capital projects by local authority which are currently in the pre-construction process including assessment/approval by my Department.

Local Authority

Projects

Units

Carlow

3

14

Cavan

2

26

Clare

0

0

Cork City

9

179

Cork County

2

18

DLR

1

4

Donegal

0

0

Dublin City

4

249

Fingal

0

0

Galway City

2

32

Galway County

3

15

Kerry

2

121

Kildare

0

0

Kilkenny

3

20

Laois

1

11

Leitrim

2

8

Limerick

8

113

Longford

4

66

Louth

2

15

Mayo

0

0

Meath

3

52

Monaghan

0

0

Offaly

2

12

Roscommon

5

54

Sligo

0

0

South Dublin

1

310

Tipperary

2

15

Waterford

3

43

Westmeath

1

55

Wexford

1

12

Wicklow

4

125

TOTALS

70

1569

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. This loan facility can support up to 30% of the eligible capital cost of the housing project, with the housing units provided to local authorities for social housing use under long-term lease arrangements known as Payment and Availability Agreements (P&A). The table below sets out details of projects with my Department for approval and the numbers of units associated with these projects. The average time for the approval of a CALF project is six weeks.

Local authority

Projects

Units

Cavan

1

36

Cork City

2

62

Cork County

1

15

DLR

1

55

Dublin City

3

86

Fingal

1

33

Kerry

2

64

Kildare

1

6

Laois

2

93

Louth

1

70

Meath

2

61

South Dublin

3

59

Tipperary

1

48

Westmeath

1

130

Wicklow

2

74

TOTALS

24

892

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