Anton McNulty
A SENIOR official in Mayo County Council has moved to allay fears that voluntary housing bodies were looking to buy sites in Mayo despite them not having a housing need.
Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray expressed his concern at a recent SPC Housing committee meeting that voluntary housing bodies were looking to buy sites in parts of Mayo for social housing regardless of a housing need.
“A few people have approached me to say that these people are going around the county looking for sites and what seems to be driving them is the fiscal opportunities as opposed to meeting the social housing needs,” he said at the meeting.
However, Paul Benson, Head of Housing in Mayo County Council played down these concerns saying the practice was not happening as much in rural counties compared to urban centres.
“We don’t have a big issue in Mayo with people trying to push these schemes through against our wishes. If we are not prepared to give our approval...the scheme is dead. That does not stop bodies going around looking to buy land. There has been a little bit of that but with the groups we know, we have an understanding they won’t get involved in bidding for any site without getting back to us first.
“There are some bodies we haven’t operated with before who are active in the market and are talking to developers and auctioneers. It is not completely satisfactory but they do have to come back to us for us to approve if there is a housing need,” he explained.
Cllr Murray also felt that voluntary housing bodies were taking over responsibility for providing social housing and felt it ‘seems to me like a Dublin solution being imposed on rural Ireland’.
Mr Benson explained that the funding model for social housing has changed and the housing bodies have to borrow from the private market. He said they generate their income stream through leasing the units to the local authority and the advantages from the government’s point of view is the funding is taken off the balance sheet.
Cllr Murray described this as ‘convoluted’ and felt the local authority should be involved in rolling out all aspects of social housing. Cllr Gerry Ginty also agreed saying that with the new scheme there wasn’t an opportunity for tenants to purchase their houses and put down roots.
Mr Benson acknowledged this but stated that only eleven voluntary housing units were planned in Mayo while the Council currently had 158 units at various stages of progress. He added that the main concern was taking people out of the private rental market and into secure tenancies.
“There are lots of tenants in difficulty and struggling to maintain their tenancy. Every day we are trying to find alternative accomodation. That is where the challenge is, to provide units to get them out of that situation and into more secure tenancies.”
