Thomas Gould
Question:232. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the amount of funding provided to Cork City Council for housing maintenance, in each of the years 2019 to date. [45738/24]
View answerThursday, 7 November 2024
Questions (232)
Written answers
The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carry out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulation, 2019.
Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, my Department does provide annual funding support to local authorities for management and maintenance under a number of funding programmes.
Under the Voids Programme, my Department has supported local authorities in refurbishing vacant social homes and returning them to productive use. Since 2014 Cork City Council has received funding of €27,193,569 million to support the return to productive use of 1,624 properties under this programme.
Under the Energy Efficiency Programme, my Department funds the carrying out of retrofitting works to local authority dwellings. Over the period 2013 to 2023 over 7,491 units of social housing stock have been retrofitted by Cork City Council with a total exchequer spend of €26,675,322 million under the scheme.
Under the Disabled Person Grant Scheme, my Department funds local authorities in carrying out necessary adaptation works to local authority properties to cater for the needs of elderly and disabled tenants and families living in overcrowded conditions in local authority properties. Since 2011 my Department has provided funding of €16,868,630 million to Cork City under this programme.
Under the Regeneration Scheme, my Department funds programmes of estate regeneration in a number of targeted areas around the country. This programme focuses on the remediation and upgrade of existing local authority homes within defined areas of disadvantage and can also provide for some new homes as part of the overall regeneration plan for the area. Cork City Council has a regeneration programme ‘Cork Northwest Quarter Regeneration Programme’ concentrated within the Knocknaheeny area of the city. Since 2019 to the end of 2023 my Department has provided funding of €28 million to Cork City Council under this programme. Further projects within this regeneration area are in the pipeline.
My Department has provided funding of almost €100 million to Cork City Council under the above stock improvement schemes. However, work is ongoing with the local authority sector, through the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) to drive a planned maintenance approach to the maintenance of local authority housing stock. This will see circa 150,000 local authority social housing properties surveyed to determine their condition so as to inform future work programmes and ensure the available funding is spent in a strategic and focussed way.
My Department will continue to fund local authorities for stock improvement works but it is also important that local authorities increasingly seek to move to a position whereby all rents being received are spent on the proper management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock.