Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2023
26. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he intends to set affordable housing targets for each local authority without official targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33094/23]
View answerThe Government approved the commencement of the process to revise the National Planning Framework (NPF) last month. An Expert Group has been appointed to undertake a high-level review of the NPF and it is expected that the work of the group will conclude with the submission of their report to the Minister over the summer.
As part of the revision process, the full suite of results from Census 2022 published by the CSO over the coming months will be taken into account in the updating of the ESRI Structural Housing Demand methodology.
The revised NPF strategy, to be approved by Government in Q1 2024, will also allow for the updating of the Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) tool. The HNDA tool assists local authorities to develop long-term views of housing need and demand and provides a robust evidence base to support decisions about new housing supply, wider investment and housing related services that inform an overall national housing profile.
Housing for All is a long-term plan which is building towards 40,000 homes per year by 2030 as capacity grows in the residential construction sector. A review of overall housing targets has commenced which will have regard to the Census data and the NPF review and will be underpinned by independent, peer-reviewed research by the ESRI.
This work will, collectively, form the basis of revising the affordable housing targets for local authorities and the matter of setting targets for Local Authorities without current official targets will be considered.
It is important to note that the Affordable Housing Fund is open to all local authorities to assist in the development and delivery of affordable housing schemes where appropriate to do so, whether or not an authority has been set an affordability target. A number of local authorities who do not have targets have already successfully developed appropriate schemes to deal with identified localised affordability challenges within their areas, and a number of other such schemes are currently being planned or under assessment.
My Department, the Housing Agency and the Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office within the Local Government Management Association are engaging proactively with all local authorities to respond effectively to affordability challenges nationwide.
