Housing authorities have been allocated more than €390 million to build, acquire or lease about 9,000 homes this year, Minister for Housing and Local Services Michael Finneran has said.
Mr Finneran said the homes could be provided to people in need of social housing in 2010 with the aid of the long-term leasing scheme, despite an overall budget cut of €198 million.
The long-term leasing initiative has the capacity to deliver at least 2,000 new homes in 2010 with the potential to allow for a significant increase in social housing supply over the coming years, Mr Finneran said.
Funding allocations for the social housing budget total almost €880 million this year, a €198 million reduction on the figure allocated for last year.
Allocations totalling almost €216 million were announced by the Minister for approved voluntary or co-operative housing projects with a further €49 million available for new projects during the year.
“These allocations will go some way towards meeting the accommodation requirements of people with special needs by providing continued support for the valuable work undertaken by housing bodies,” Mr Finneran said.
Some €30 million is being allocated for the provision of Traveller accommodation this year with a further €5 million retained as reserve fund for contingencies that arise during the year.
Almost €40 million is being provided under the Remedial Works Scheme which will enable refurbishment work to continue on local authority estates around the country.