Jan O'Sullivan, Minister for Housing and Planning, has launched a draft voluntary code for the regulation of approved housing bodies.

The draft code, which is available on the Department’s website www.environ.ie, is available for public consultation until 21 September, and will be formally launched thereafter.

In publishing this consultation document, the Minister recognised the fine work done by approved housing bodies over the last twenty years or so. Minister O'Sullivan stated, "The Government's Housing Policy, published a year ago, recognises the central role that the voluntary and co-operative sector will play in the coming years. The funding environment for the sector has changed dramatically in recent years and if the sector is to attract the necessary public and private investment we must have a strong regulatory regime in place to provide independent validation of the sector’s performance."

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The draft code is a first step towards a statutory regulatory framework that will protect the very significant State investment in the sector over the last two decades and will provide assistance to those working in the sector to meet the challenges ahead. Several hundred approved housing bodies are operating in the sector and they vary greatly in scale and ambition, from small bodies with a handful of housing units run entirely by volunteers to large bodies with several thousand units and dozens of full time staff. The draft code outlines minimum regulatory standards that will apply to all and additional standards and requirements that apply to larger bodies.

(CD/GK)