Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 September 2022
256. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will detail the social and affordable housing provision completed or currently in progress for each county and local authority area in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46551/22]
View answerMy Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity. This data is available to the end of Quarter 1 2022, and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/
My Department also publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR). The CSR provides details of social housing developments that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The most recent publication was for Quarter 1 2022 and is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/6912a-social-housing-construction-projects-status-report-q1-2022/. A version of the CSR file can also be downloaded for analysis at the link below: Social Housing Construction Status Report Q1 2022 - Dataset - Dept of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
The Quarter 2 social housing statistics are being collated and will be published shortly, in conjunction with the Quarter 2 Construction Status Report.
Over the period to 2026, the Government's Housing for All strategy commits to delivering 10,000 Cost Rental homes and 18,000 Affordable Purchase homes which will be delivered by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), local authorities, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and the First Home shared equity scheme.
Local authorities have begun collating information on delivery of affordable homes in their area in the same manner as is currently undertaken for social housing. It is intended that information across all delivery streams, including AHB delivery and LDA delivery, will be gathered centrally and I expect that my Department will be in a position to begin reporting on affordable delivery on a quarterly basis later this year.
To date, six projects in four local authorities have advertised a cumulative total of 325 affordable purchase homes. It is anticipated that there will additional projects advertised before the year end. The six projects are;
- Boherboy Road (Cork City Council) (117 units);
- Cluain Chaoin (Cork City Council) (36 units);
- Elder Walk, Summerfields (Waterford City and County Council) (92 units);
- Deer Park, Williamstown (Waterford City and County Council) (25 units);
- Kilcarbery Grange (South Dublin County Council) (16 units); and
- Dun Emer, Lusk (Fingal County Council) (39 units)
The Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) supports AHBs in the delivery of Cost Rental homes and approval has been confirmed for approximately 900 homes to be delivered under scheme in the period to 2023. Approximately 300 CREL funded homes have been delivered to date in 2022.
Cost Rental properties are also in development by local authorities through the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) and 50 Cost Rental homes tenanted in Enniskerry Road earlier this year were supported by approximately €4.5m in funding from my Department. The AHF will help to facilitate a local authority-led financing structure for Cost Rental, which will provide important opportunities for local authorities to directly delivery Cost Rental homes on their own lands, such as at Emmet Road in Dublin City.
The LDA will also deliver Cost Rental homes, as well as affordable purchase homes on its own portfolio of sites or through Project Tosaigh. Project Tosaigh is a market engagement initiative to unlock land with full planning permission that is not being developed by private sector owners. The LDA has advised that it will deliver Project Tosaigh cost rental homes and affordable purchase homes in partnership with local authorities during 2022. Full details will be made public as commercial arrangements are concluded. Full details of the initiative can be found here: lda.ie/home-building-partnership/.
In respect of the LDA, details of the work that the LDA is progressing on public lands that will deliver Affordable Purchase and Cost Rental can be found here: lda.ie/projects-schemes/
