Update: Unfinished Housing Estates – Environment 17th September, 2014

Question No.     1617  
 
 
Chun an Aire Comhshaoil, Pobail agus Rialtais Áitiúil:  
To the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government:                
 
 
 
To ask the Minister for the; Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of applications received in his Department for funding from Kildare County Council to complete development works in unfinished housing estates within the past two years to date; the extent to which he expects to be in a position to respond to such applications, in the short and medium term; and if he will make a statement on the matter.  

 
For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 17th September, 2014.  
 
Ref No: 34851/14  
 

 
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (Mr. A. Kelly)  
 
 
Budget 2014 contains a special provision, in the form of a targeted €10m Special Resolution Fund (SRF), to assist further in addressing the legacy of unfinished housing developments. The SRF is designed to encourage the resolution of the remaining tranche of unfinished developments identified in the National Housing Development Survey 2013 and, particularly, those developments not likely to be resolved in the normal way through solely developer/owner/funder action because of the presence of specific financial barriers. It is envisaged that the SRF should be particularly targeted to address the remaining unfinished developments with residents living in them and, in particular, any developments that local authorities identified, for the purposes of the Local Property Tax waiver, as in a seriously problematic condition.
 
In December 2013, my Department wrote to local authorities seeking proposals for funding support under the SRF and the deadline for receipt of applications was 28 February 2014. All submissions were evaluated by my Department in accordance with the criteria circulated to the local authorities.  On 2 May 2014, allocations from the Special Resolution Fund were announced and 86 developments were approved for funding. The following link contains a list of all developments approved for SRF funding:  
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,37940,en.htm  

.  
 
Kildare County Council submitted 4 applications for funding from the Special Resolution Fund, of which 1 was approved.  
 
It is hoped that the SRF will enable very substantial progress to be made in resolving as many of the remaining unfinished developments as possible.