City manager vows to end problem of vacant council homes
Dan Buggy made his comments at a city council meeting on Monday after councillors expressed concerns about the number of vacant social houses or ‘voids’ across the city, and a lack of spending on repairs.
There are currently 499 council homes lying vacant or boarded up, while 8,161 eligible applicants languish on the city’s social housing waiting list.
Against the background of restricted funding over recent years, housing maintenance and repairs have virtually ground to a halt.
Despite the sanctioning last October of a €1m revolving fund for housing repairs from the council’s own reserves, there has been little progress in reducing the number of voids.
Cllr Michael O’Connell (Lab) raised the issue on Monday, seeking clarification about how this money was being spent.
Mr Buggy said this fund, combined with a recent €1.2m funding allocation from central government to tackle 94 vacant properties, will bring the total void repair fund close to €3m — giving the council’s housing directorate one of the largest capital spending programmes this year.
“The problem of voids will be eliminated in a short space of time. The city will have sufficient funding by the end of the year to deal with the voids issue,” Mr Buggy said.
Mr O’Connell also predicted another substantial voids funding announcement in September.
Cllr Mick Barry (Socialist Party) said the voids problem could be solved by the end of the year if massive government cutbacks were reversed.
“If Dan Buggy thinks it’s going to be done without that, he probably thinks that West Bromwich Albion will win the Premiership next year and that a spaceship from Jupiter will land on the grounds of City Hall the day after the local elections.
“The reality is that the new government initiative brought in weeks before a local election to save a few government skins will fix up less than one fifth of the vacant properties on the books.”
It is understood a complex system of cost-control measures, required maintenance works, and a priority repair list is being drawn up to govern spending from the €1m revolving fund.
It is expected that the cost of repairs to individual voids will range from €5,000 to €7,500, with outsourcing required for some works.
