ICTU call for €1bn investment in Budget 2018 to tackle housing crisis

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions have called for for a €1bn home-building fund, compulsory purchase orders and an expidited introduction of a Vacant Site Levy to address the homelessness crisis.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions have called for for a €1bn home-building fund, compulsory purchase orders and an expedited introduction of a Vacant Site Levy to address the homelessness crisis.

ICTU has told the Finance Minister that a failure to properly tackle the Housing Crisis in Budget 2018 would see Ireland “pay a high price in terms of future social cohesion, damage to future growth prospects and increased living costs for working people.”

ICTU made the statement following a pre-Budget submission made by Congress General Secretary Patricia King.

Ms King said ICTU is proposing that local authorities across the country take the lead in the provision of social housing as the only long-term and sustainable response to the housing crisis.

“We abandoned the housing market to private developers and let profit become the key driver of housing provision. But the market has failed and government must now step in and declare a National Housing Emergency and act accordingly.

“Local authorities should take the lead in a major house building programme with funding of at least €1 billion from government, providing at least 10,000 social housing units a year by late 2018," said Ms King.

She also suggested that Compulsory Purchase Orders must be utilised "as a matter of urgency to ensure available serviced land is put to good use."

Additionally, the proposal suggested the Vacant Site Levy should be brought forward from January 2019, as we are in a state of "emergency".

“We cannot afford a return to the developer-led and shaped policies of previous years despite recent attempts from that sector to extract more tax breaks and subsidies in order to build houses. That approach has led us directly into the crisis we see today," said Ms King.

She said that thousands of lives are being damaged beyond repair by the housing crisis and that Budget 2018 is an opportunity to deliver a "game-charger" on the issue.

The ICTU said they would continue to push for an end to the special reduced rate of VAT received by the hospitality/tourism sector as this was a “de facto subsidy that had already cost the state some €2.2 billion in taxes foregone.”

Ms King said that there was no justification for the reduced rate and said that the move hasn't led to any significant new job creation.

“In fact all the evidence suggests that the reduced rate operates as a subsidy to very profitable corporations which is a waste of valuable resources when set against areas of obvious need, such as homelessness,” said Ms King.

Ms King said Congress also made the case for increased investment in key services to Minister Donohoe, as a way of boosting the ‘social wage’ and lowering the cost of living, particularly in terms of tackling higher costs in education and healthcare for working families.