202. Deputy Michael Conaghan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when a new scheme will be introduced to allow local authority tenants to purchase their houses; if he will provide details of the expected scheme and the way it will operate; the timeframe for its introduction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45660/14]

Part 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 provides for a new scheme for the purchase of existing local authority houses, which will be open to local authority tenants in receipt of social housing support for a prescribed period of at least one year who have not previously purchased a house under a tenant purchase scheme and who have a minimum prescribed annual income.

The new scheme will operate along the incremental purchase model currently being applied in the purchase schemes for local authority apartments and new local authority houses under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. This model involves discounts for purchasers linked to household income, rather than tenancy, and a discount-related charge on the property that reduces over a period of years, unless the house is resold or the purchaser fails to comply with conditions of the sale.

I intend in the coming months to make regulations under the 2014 Act, setting down the detailed terms of the new scheme.