Government is making housing crisis worse
New proposals to reform the Government’s rent supplement scheme will result in the already overburdened council housing lists being overwhelmed completely. Under the plan, councils will progressively assume responsibility for meeting the long-term needs of 20,000 households who have depended on the rent supplement for 18 months.
The new rules mean rent supplements will be denied, after 18 months, at which point local authorities are being encouraged to enter public-private partnerships that could be financed, developed and operated, on a long-term basis, exclusively by local authorities.
Fewer than 5,000 local authority houses are being built each year. Not one of the 10,000 affordable houses - promised by the government to low and middle income workers 18 months ago under the Sustaining Progress deal - has been built. The homes were included in the three-year deal to tackle the shortage in housing supply, and the rapid increase in house prices. With very few local authority houses available, this rent supplement will create further hardship and misery to many families.
The failure of the Government to deal realistically and adequately with the problems of excessively high house prices, of the provision of social housing and reasonably priced lands, is a national scandal.
Some people cannot buy houses because builders, developers and bankers are making huge profits.
In 2003, €322 million was spent on rent supplement payments to private landlords. Why could this funding not be given to local authorities to build social housing and not to build up the bank accounts of fat-cat millionaires?
Why will Government not wake up to its responsibilities, realise we have a housing crisis and do something about it?
Cllr Noel Collins,
St Jude’s
Midleton
Co Cork
