Under the Voids Programme funded by my Department, 10,162 vacant social housing homes were returned to productive use in the period 2015-2019. This figure does not include homes which were returned to productive use by local authorities using funding from their own resources.
Between 2015-2019, Exchequer funding of approximately €146m was provided supporting local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting.
The following table provides the full breakdown by local authority of the units funded by my Department during this time:
Local Authority Voids
In March 2020, a call for proposals for COVID-19 related voids funding was issued to local authorities. The objective of this funding was to support local authorities in bringing social housing units back into use as quickly as possible to deal with the response to Covid-19. 500 homes were approved as part of this programme with funding totalling €5million made available to support work in this area.
As part of the July Stimulus Package, I secured €40million of additional funding for the Voids programme this year. There has been very strong local authority uptake in the Voids programme as a result of this funding, as submissions from all 31 local authorities were received promptly. These submissions were reviewed by my Department and over €39.9m has already been allocated to return 2,402 vacant homes to productive use.
My Department is working with local authorities to ensure that all of these vacant homes are refurbished and allocated this year. In addition to the Covid and Stimulus voids funding streams the details of which are outlined above, the normal voids programme continues in 2020. Final figures and the breakdown across each funding stream for the return of vacant units in relation to 2020 will be available in early 2021.
Data in relation to the number and location of vacant local authority units and average turnaround times are not collated by my Department, however, statistics in relation to the social housing stock are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their Annual Reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These reports provide a range of information in relation to social housing stock, including the average time taken to re-tenant a dwelling. The most recent report, relating to 2018, is available on the NOAC website at the following link: http://noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NOAC-Performance-Indicator-Report-2018-1.pdf.
