BUDGET 2016: Tenants left uncertain on rent control

Hard-pressed tenants have been left in the dark over the future of Environment Minister Alan Kelly’s mooted rent certainty plan after Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin twice declined to say if he still supports the measure.

The senior Labour minister refused to say if he still backs the plan, if it will form part of his party’s imminent election manifesto and who “shot it down” after the popular policy to tackle surging rents failed to make it into budget 2016.

Speaking at a post-budget press briefing alongside Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Mr Howlin said there is no “fundamental difference” between Fine Gael and Labour over the proposed policy to address surging rents.

Asked about rent certainty, which includes linking rent prices to the consumer price index and has been the subject of significant internal coalition rows, Mr Howlin said “we’re looking for mechanisms that will work” and are not “short-term” only.

While leaving the door open for the plan to be reconsidered in unspecified future policies, Mr Howlin said it is important any measures do not “distort the market” and that the focus should be on housing supply, two issues previously flagged by Fine Gael. He did not clarify when asked if Mr Noonan had “shot it down”.

Mr Kelly earlier insisted “rent certainty isn’t a budgetary issue” and that “discussions” are going to continue next week “in relation to housing”, before repeating Mr Howlin’s current position that “it’s a two-sided coin, one side is supply and the other is rent”.

Despite a need to immediately address the rental market problems, which are linked to the homelessness crisis, yesterday’s budget said Nama will instead be given longer-term authority to improve housing supply.

While Labour had been pushing the matter, Fine Gael had raised concerns over the impact on the market and landlords, leading to claims of a Labour climbdown.

Meanwhile, at the post-budget press conference, Mr Noonan confirmed there will be no election before Christmas, adding that Government has “important work to do” on the Finance Bill, the Social Welfare Bill and unwinding FEMPI public-sector pay-cut legislation.

Mr Noonan also said the Government’s decision to confirm the abolition of USC by 2021 has nothing to do with the imminent election and the unpopularity of the tax.

Despite saying last October that USC is “too lucrative” to ever remove, a comment he repeated in February, the Fine Gael minister said an improving economy was the only reason for his sudden U-turn.