What is in the Government’s new housing plan?

Housing for All is the Government’s plan to boost the supply of housing to 2030, and increase availability and affordability of housing, and to create a sustainable housing system into the future. So what exactly is in it?

It pledges to:

– provide €12 billion in direct Exchequer funding, combined with €3.5 billion in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5 billion funding through the Housing Finance Agency;

– deliver up to 15,000 new homes through the transfer of State lands to the Land Development Agency;

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– deliver 33,000 new homes on average per year;

– add 4,000 affordable homes each year for purchase;

– create a new local authority-provided Affordable Purchase Scheme, primarily aimed at helping first-time buyers to purchase affordable housing being sold by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies;

– create a new national First Homeshared-equity scheme to help first-time buyers to purchase their own home;

– deliver affordable housing on public lands through provision of sites to the Land Development Agency;

– expand the Local Authority home loan scheme, which will provide lower mortgage interest rates for all new applicants and increased income limits for single applicants in areas with greatest housing requirement and affordability challenges;

– add 2,000 cost-rental homes per year;

– reform renting regulation to address affordability for tenants caught in rent traps;

– continue social housing supports and capital funding for social housing schemes;

– provide 10,000 social homes, on average, every year to 2030;

– provide 1,200 “housing first” tenancies over the next five years for people with a history of rough sleeping, or long-term use of emergency accommodation and who have complex needs;

– provide additional access to health supports and protections for homeless individuals in the form of individual health care plans for all of those who need one;

– improve access to mental health services;

– enhance intervention services for children and their families through a multi-agency and coordinated response;

– integrate care pathways, based on an inclusion health model, for people who are homeless with chronic health needs, will be strengthened;

– establish a National Homeless Action Committee;

– improving the quantity and quality of Traveller-specific accommodation;

– publish a new national housing strategy for people with a disability;

– establish a new tax to activate vacant lands for residential purposes;

– increase contributions by developers to Social and Affordable Housing from 10 per cent to 20 per cent;

– activate State-owned vacant properties;

– increase funding to local authorities in order to retrofit 36,500 Local Authority-owned homes to B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) by 2030;

– examine the creation of an independent Building Standards Regulator to oversee building control nationwide and to act as custodian of the Building Control Management System.