Vol. 479 No. 3
7 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for the Environment the plans, if any, he has to improve the shared ownership scheme and make it more relevant to current house prices in order that additional applicants are not forced to seek scarce local authority housing. [13076/97]
I am conscious of the impact of the rising housing market on the shared ownership scheme and while proposals for improvements to the scheme are currently under consideration, I am not in a position to make a statement on the matter at this stage.
If the Minister is to launch his manifesto tomorrow, he might wait until then to make his statement. However, the problem is that good and valuable schemes such as the shared ownership scheme are being rendered redundant by rising house prices. In my local authority the number of successful applications under the scheme decreased last year. Can the Minister give an indication of his thinking on the matter? Will he change the income eligibility limits or the maximum size of the mortgage permitted or reduce the initial equity?
The Deputy has made a good case but he should not gild the lily by overstating it. The shared ownership scheme is good and there is a good take-up of it. That take up has only slightly reduced. The figure for 1995 was 1,381 and in 1996 it was 1,277. I do not have the figure for this year but I expect it to be similar.
I want to achieve the maximum possible take-up of the shared ownership scheme. I and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing have drawn up proposals which are currently under discussion in the Department of Finance. I do not wish to pre-empt the Department's decision but it will be proposed to increase the income limit and the level of subsidy payable, particularly in the case of people on lower incomes. I hope to be in a position to give further details when our negotiations with the Department of Finance are concluded.
In the Dublin area, with which I am most familiar, a basic former local authority house is selling for between £50,000 and £60,000. Under present regulations those houses are almost out of the reach of a person seeking to purchase under the shared ownership scheme. We need and must retain a hierarchy of housing options. Unless we do something quickly, people who would normally opt for shared ownership will wonder why they should bother committing themselves to a £50,000 mortgage for a house when they can go on the housing list and the local authority will probably build them a new house at £80,000 or £90,000 or buy them a house in a private estate for about £80,000. The hierarchy of options is out of kilter. This scheme requires a major change in its regulations to maintain the incentive to purchase. People should not be encouraged to go on the housing list if they are capable of buying their own houses.
The Deputy makes a great deal of sense. I wish to give what assistance we can and to improve that assistance to a level which will allow people to be independent of local authority housing in so far as that is possible. Obviously some people will not be in a financial position to do anything other than go on a local authority housing list.
There are problems in Dublin because the cost of land and housing is extremely high. In 1996, 85 per cent of transactions completed under the shared ownership scheme were in respect of secondhand houses and 59 per cent of all secondhand houses were sold for £60,000 or less. In Dublin, more than 40 per cent of houses were £60,000 or less. The changes I and the Minister of State have put together will increase the level of house cost that can be achieved by the same input — in other words, a person can buy a more expensive house for the same financial outlay — and adjust the supports to enable that to happen. That is most important to prevent people who could perhaps afford to purchase with a little extra help being forced to abandon the prospect and apply for a house from the local authority.
Our ideas are being discussed and I hope to make an announcement about them shortly.
The Minister referred to the severe cost of land in Dublin. The Taoiseach also, when referring to the ESRI report, said more land in Dublin needed to be rezoned as there is a shortage of land zoned for housing. Has the Minister changed his thinking on this matter? Would he, on behalf of his party, apologise for blackguarding Fianna Fáil for years because it tried to provide for the future by having land ready and available so young couples could buy houses at a reasonable rather than an inflated price? The chickens have come home to roost. The ESRI, the Taoiseach and everybody else accepts that we have been caught without a suitable and adequate supply of land for housing. Has that thinking got through to the Minister's Department?
That appears to be an extension of the original question.
It is a different question but I will be happy to answer it. I have not opposed rezoning. However, I am implacably opposed to maverick rezoning and we have seen a great deal of it in recent decades.
Have we thrown the baby out with the bathwater?
Maverick rezoning takes no account of either infrastructural requirements or the environmental pressures it puts on an area. Many people are up in arms about maverick rezonings that are either in train or being contemplated. I make no apology for taking a strong line on maverick rezoning.
We need a supply of land for good quality housing that is structured and orderly. More importantly, we need a more structured overall land use policy and to avoid looking at parts of counties and individual counties in isolation. We must have a rational population and land use policy for the country so every area can participate in the economic boom. One corner of a county should not suddenly become a huge urban area and villages should not suddenly turn into large towns in a few years. That type of development is not healthy. I do not share the view that the provision of housing is the beginning and end of the issue. Sustainable development and planning involve more than simply providing houses. They involve providing a sustainable environment for the future and that must be done in an integrated way.
I have required local authorities in Dublin and adjoining local authorities to work in concert to provide a rational land use plan. That is a better way of addressing the real needs the Deputy has identified than simply saying rezoning is a good thing so get on with it.
