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Approved Housing Bodies

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 May 2022

Tuesday, 10 May 2022

Questions (328)

Paul Murphy

Question:

328. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the average length of time that it takes from the moment that a newly built property is made available to a council by an approved housing body to the moment that a tenant takes up residency broken down by each council in tabular form. [22578/22]

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Written answers

The information sought in this question is not held by my Department.

My Department operates a number of funding programmes that assist local authorities to work in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to construct and purchase new homes and make them available for social housing. One such programme that AHBs progress construction projects through is the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF). The properties are made available to local authorities for social housing under Payment and Availability (P&A) Agreements.

Where a dwelling under the P&A agreement becomes available for first letting upon completion of construction, the terms with the P&A agreement stipulate that the AHB will notify the local authority as soon as it becomes aware of the availability date and that a nomination is required for the property. The Local Authority provides a nomination, within one month of being notified by the AHB.

Payments are made to the AHB for a maximum period of 3 consecutive months from date of availability in order to allow for tenanting of the dwelling. For P&A-CALF properties, this period can be extended by one additional month where the housing authority has not provided a nomination within one month of being notified of the vacancy. If the dwelling remains vacant at the end of the 3-month period and has not been withdrawn from the scheme, it is deemed to be inactive and notified to my Department. No payment is made by my Department in respect of inactive dwellings. Inactive dwellings may become active again when they are re-tenanted.

Under my Department’s Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), the allocation of social housing to tenants and matters arising to include the length of time it takes for this to happen upon completion of a project is a matter for the Local Authority/AHB and accordingly the information sought in not collated/available in my Department.

As both these schemes are administered by the local authorities, my Department does not have information relating to tenancies.

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