Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
636. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of cost rental homes provided for in County Kildare over the past two years; the location of each; the number of cost rental homes for Kildare in planning or under construction; the location of each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36596/23]
View answerThe Housing for All strategy commits to delivering a total of 18,000 Cost Rental homes over the period to 2030, and significant funding is being made available to support provision by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), Local Authorities, and by the Land Development Agency (LDA).
In implementing the key objectives under Housing for All, each local authority has prepared and published a Housing Delivery Action Plan in respect of local authority supported or overseen delivery from 2022 to 2026. This includes planned delivery of affordable and cost rental homes. Local authorities with a strong and identified affordable housing need, including Kildare County Council, were asked to include assessed affordable housing need and planned affordable housing delivery in their Action Plans. I have set individual five-year Affordable Housing delivery targets for those local authorities. The Kildare plan is available at the following link kildarecoco.ie/YourCouncil/Publications/Housing/Kildare%20County%20Council%20Housing%20Delivery%20Action%20Plan.pdf
Delivery will increase incrementally to an average of 2,000 Cost Rental homes per year, with 10,000 Cost Rental homes targeted for delivery by 2026. AHBs are supported by Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) funding, and Local Authorities are able to avail of funding through the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF). The LDA is also delivering Cost Rental on its own portfolio of sites, or through acquisitions under Project Tosaigh.
The very first Cost Rental homes in Ireland, a total of 65 units, were delivered in Kildare and Dublin in late 2021, including 40 homes in Leixlip. We then saw significant acceleration of delivery in 2022, when a further 684 new Cost Rental homes were delivered, including 202 across sites in Leixlip, Kildare Town, and Newbridge. In total 242 Cost Rental homes were delivered in County Kildare in 2021 and 2022.
Cost Rental Delivery is continuing this year, with a pipeline of housing delivery which is being progressively developed by Local Authorities, AHBs, and the LDA. Local authorities have begun systematically collating information on delivery of affordable homes in their area, including delivery by AHBs and the LDA, in the same manner as is currently done for social housing delivery. Informed by returns of this data, the 2022 process is complete and statistical data on delivery across all delivery streams has been validated and published on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/#affordable-housing-delivery .
