I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 33, 42, 108 and 109 together.
Full details of each housing authority's assessment of housing needs in March 1993 were published in the Annual Housing Statistics Bulletin, 1993 together with details of local authority housing completions, purchases of existing dwellings and lettings during 1993. The housing needs of towns with town commissioners are included in the returns made by the relevant county council. Copies of the bulletin are available in the Oireachtas Library.
A total of 28,624 households were assessed by the local authorities as being in need of housing — an increase of 23 per cent on the March 1991 figure of 23,244 households. However, within that overall increase, many of the categories of need remained reasonably stable. The largest increase — 58 per cent — occurred in the category "unable to afford existing accommodation" with the categories of "overcrowding" and "involuntary sharing" showing much smaller but still significant increases. Affordability rather than quality is the main reason for the increase.
A sum of £30.2 million was paid by the health boards to private landlords in rent subsidies. This indicates that people are opting for unaffordable accommodation rather than mobile homes which used to be the practice. There are now few people in that category.
The Government's plans for responding to housing needs are set out in the Programme for a Partnership Government which states clearly that the aim of the Government's policies will be to reduce pressure on local authority waiting lists to the greatest extent possible. In particular, the Government is committed to speeding up implementation of the plan for social housing and to making a much more substantial provision for local authority housing. These commitments are reiterated in the Programme for Competitiveness and Work and are being met in full.
Almost 4,900 local authority first-time lettings were made by local authorities in 1993 and it is expected that this number will increase substantially in 1994 as a result of the threefold expansion of the programme of starts since 1992. Between the local authority, voluntary and other programmes, together with vacancies arising in the local authority rented housing stock, over 9,000 households in housing need will be accommodated in 1994 and again in 1995, giving a total of 18,000 families, compared to 7,100 in 1993 and 6,100 in 1992. Thus, annual social housing output will have increased by 50 per cent in two years, significantly improving general access to housing and shortening the length of time on waiting lists. A breakdown of actual social housing output in 1992 and 1993 and projected social housing output in 1994 is given in Table 1 which will be circulated in the Official Report.
Some 3,800 local authority houses were "started" last year and 1,569 were completed by the local authorities. Both of these figures include 369 houses which were acquired by local authorities. In 1994 the vast majority of 1993 starts will be completed and a further 3,500 dwellings will be started which will maintain the greatly expanded programme; in other words, a total of 7,000 houses will be under construction during 1994. This expansion in the local authority housing programme has been achieved without recourse to large scale local authority housing on greenfield sites. The emphasis in the programme remains on the provision of smaller infill sites and on developments which are integrated with existing communities. We are also now seeing a significant degree of purchasing of existing houses by local authorities with, as I said, 369 existing houses purchased last year. Details of individual local authority authorised starts and capital allocations for 1994 are given in Table 2 which will be circulated in the Official Report.
The overall housing capital allocation for 1994 is almost £295 million, an increase of over £105 million or 56 per cent on the 1993 outturn of £189 million. Table 3, which will be circulated in the Official Report, compares the main housing capital outturns for 1993 with the corresponding provisions for 1994.
The 1994 budget contained the following special capital provisions: an extra £12 million for the local authority house building programme increasing the figure of £92.5 million in 1993 to £166 million in 1994, an increase of 80 per cent, an extra £2.5 million provided for the remedial works scheme, an extra £1.5 million for the installation of bathrooms; an extra £2 million for the task force on housing aid for the elderly; a special new provision of £3 million to supplement the resources of local authorities in meeting the cost of replacement of defective windows in their large flat complexes. This amount has been allocated (£2.425 million to Dublin Corporation, £425,000 to Cork Corporation, £150,000 to Limerick Corporation) on the basis that these authorities will make a matching contribution from their own resources. In other words, for that £3 million we will have £6 million worth of new windows.
The local authority housing programme is complemented by the range of measures introduced in the plan for social housing and I will now outline progress in relation to each of these schemes.
There was continued progress on the shared ownership scheme during 1993. At 31 December 1993, 3,245 approvals had issued and 1,600 transactions had been completed. The number of completions during 1993 was 1,019.
Over 600 houses have been identified as suitable under the improvement works in lieu of the rehousing scheme to 31 December 1993. Work was completed on 176 houses up to 31 December 1993 and work was in progress on 59 houses at that date.
Since its inception, authorities have sold 917 sites under the sale of sites scheme up to 31 December 1993; 770 sites were approved for sale in 1993.
Activity under the mortgage allowance scheme has fallen off in 1993, possibly as a result of the introduction of the 1993 tenant purchase scheme, 161 houses were returned to local authorities under the scheme in 1993 compared to 179 in 1992.
In 1993 eight projects were completed under the rental subsidy scheme containing 141 units, 17 projects were under construction containing just over 400 units while a further 59 projects were approved or proposed containing just over 1,300 units. Full details of these schemes in relation to each housing authority were published in the Annual Bulletin of Housing Statistics, 1993. The schemes are currently under review to identify any changes that may be needed to increase their effectiveness.
The Economic and Social Research Institute is, at the request of my Department, carrying out an independent, in-depth analysis and evaluation of the housing needs as presented in the local authority assessments. The objective is to provide a better insight into the nature of the needs, and the most appropriate solutions to them; to identify the factors influencing trends in the level of needs; and help to develop methods of forecasting future trends. The study will also examine the consistency of approach between housing authorities in the measurement of needs. The results of the study will be published in due course.
