Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 May 2022
54. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the extent to which County Mayo was assessed to determine the level of demand for an affordable housing scheme; and the reason Mayo County Council was not included by his Department when finalising the affordable housing targets for 18 local authorities level for the period 2022-2026. [22198/22]
View answerIssues in respect of housing and affordability of housing in County Mayo are at crisis point. There is a shortage of affordable homes to rent or purchase in parts of the county, especially in towns such as Westport, Castlebar and Ballina. The national affordable housing delivery targets were published but I was disappointed to see that Mayo County Council was excluded and that the Department’s five-year targets were allocated to only 18 local authorities. No scheme has been approved in Mayo County Council to provide affordable housing at present and that is having a negative impact on future economic development in the county.
I thank the Deputy for his question. I am anxious that all counties can participate in the affordable housing fund. They can do so should relevant schemes be brought forward. I asked all local authorities, including Mayo County Council, to prepare housing delivery action plans, which they have done. Each authority was asked to assess the level of housing demand with affordability constraint projected for their area using a common tool, namely, the housing need and demand assessment tool. Local authorities with a strong and identified affordable housing need were asked to prepare affordable delivery action plans and were set five-year affordable delivery targets.
An identified level of affordable housing need arises where, of the projected housing need in the county, more than 5% of new households would not qualify. The level of affordability constrained need in Mayo is assessed at below 5% although, in fairness, we have not constrained it to being county-wide. I understand there are localised affordability issues, particularly in Westport and also potentially in Ballina. We are happy to consider those issues. Where local authorities have localised affordability measures, as is the case in the two towns to which I referred, they can still apply to the Department for funding to develop affordable housing schemes if they can demonstrate that an affordable scheme is needed to address those localised affordability challenges and they can meet the criteria for the fund. I am confident that can be done.
I will come back in on the Deputy’s supplementary question to specifically inform him of the interaction between my Department and Mayo County Council. We are engaging with it right now - we did so as recently as yesterday - regarding the potential development of affordable housing schemes in Mayo. We have offered assistance to the county council, as we do to all local authorities if they are bringing in schemes that are specific to particular areas within the county. The county he represents is a large one and there may not be an affordability constraint in the context of the whole county but, within it, there may be such a constraint. Those are the ones we want to ensure come into the scheme.
I thank the Minister for his response. As he outlined, the issue for young people and families seeking home ownership and trying to get onto the property ladder is that the average house price in Mayo is below the 5% affordability constraint for access to the affordability scheme. As he outlined, the issue boils down to the calculations on a county-wide basis. Mayo has the fourth-lowest market house price in the country but that is certainly not reflective of the open market price of new-build homes in areas such as Westport, Castlebar and Ballina. Some of these A-rated new premises are on the market for between €270,000 and €350,000.
I am delighted to see Mayo County Council has been proactive. It reached out to the public in Mayo, seeking information to understand better the demand for affordable housing, including locations of choice and the affordability constraints of potential applicants. The threshold for social housing in Mayo is €25,000. Many people are above that threshold but caught within the squeezed-middle bracket. It is important that we respond to these pressure areas. Mayo has significant issues in respect of vacancy and dereliction. Increasing housing supply in the area would be an important step forward.
In answer to the previous parliamentary question, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, discussed the Croí Cónaithe towns and villages fund. We have to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction and we are going to do so. That fund will come out very soon.
As regards Mayo in particular, in June 2021 a scheme was submitted for 25 homes in Westport under the previous fund, namely, the serviced sites fund.
We have told Mayo County Council that it can resubmit that to the new fund and I understand work is ongoing between my Department and the council on that.
KPMG is doing some work for Mayo County Council on the future analytics side, to prove the affordability constraint in other areas. Mayo County Council has asked for a meeting, to which we have agreed, but it asked that it would happen after the work with KPMG is concluded. I understand that work will conclude this month and we are happy to meet with Mayo County Council in June, once it has received that data.
The fund is open. We have issued an open call for people to apply. Finally, from 1 July this year the first home shared equity scheme will be open for first-time buyers. We believe in home ownership. That scheme will be country wide, right across the 26 counties and it will give people choice too.
Specifically on Mayo's applications to the fund, we are working with the council on a positive basis because I want to see schemes come in from Mayo.
Deputy Ó Broin has a brief supplementary question.
I ask the Minister to confirm that all of the regulations underpinning the affordable housing schemes have been laid before the House and if not, can he tell us which ones are outstanding and when they will be laid.
I welcome the Minister's support for and engagement with Mayo County Council. It is hugely important. We have a very good housing team in the local authority and I am working closely with that team. However, housing policy in Mayo has been dictated by financial interests rather than by the needs of the locality and that certainly needs to be reformed. We should pursue affordable housing initiatives not based on the risk or the cost but based on the needs of people who want home ownership. With social housing, councils get 100% reimbursement whereas the cost of affordable housing is met by the councils and they carry the risk. That is the danger here for local authorities; they want to implement a scheme but they want support from the Department. I thank the Minister for his engagement and look forward to working with him on this in the coming weeks.
We are very serious about engaging with all local authorities. As I said already, where schemes can be brought forward, we want them. We have also issued a call on advance purchase for schemes that are currently being built or being built out and we have received six or seven proposals on that already, which will see homes delivered this year. In urban centres the LDA, through Project Tosaigh, will deliver hundreds more affordable purchase and cost rental units this year and quite a lot into 2023 too. Deputy Dillon can be assured that we will continue this work and I thank him for his engagement and support.
In response to Deputy Ó Broin's supplementary question, the cost rental affordable regulations were laid before the Houses. They are done and that national scheme is in place. The regulations for affordable purchase through local authorities were concluded a number of weeks ago and I would expect that they have been laid before the House but will double check. Our work is concluded on that. The final piece that we need to do relates to the first home shared equity, which we are wrapping up right now. As soon as we have the criteria for that, we will lay them before the Houses.
I will double check in relation to the affordable purchase regulations. We have concluded them and I have signed off on them. I would expect they are there-----
It was done last week. My question is whether that is all of them.
That is all on affordable purchase through the local authorities. The regulations on affordable rental through cost rental have been laid as well. The final piece of work or the other leg to the stool relates to the first home shared equity and that work will conclude in the next few weeks. We will be publishing that and will have an extensive public information campaign on it because this Government supports home ownership. All three parties in the Government want to make sure that affordable housing is central to our housing response and we are making progress in that regard.
