Housing and Coveney - Village Magazine

3 0 April 2017

OVENEY’S ACTION plan for housing and

homelessness, ‘Rebuilding Ireland’,

was launched last July. But it is based,

in large part, on Alan Kelly’s 2014 social

housing strategy.

Back to 2017. The ESRI has calculated that for

a country of our population and size, we need to

deliver 25,000 homes every year, to meet the

needs of our people, whether for rental or pur-

chase, social or private housing.

TARGETS

Simon Coveney, now Housing Minister, has set

ambitious targets, including:

•

Doubling the number of new homes built to

25,000 by 2021, from a (disputed) 12,600 rate

in 2016

• €5.5bn over ﬁve years for social housing. The

most recent ﬁgures show that there are 91,600

households on the lists for social hous-

ing including homeless people

•

Ending the use of emergency accommodation

such as hotels for homeless families by the

end of June, though, according to Coveney:

“Since December, a total of 238 new emer-

gency beds have come into the system in

Dublin and a further 100 are earmarked to

come into operation shortly”.

• Limiting rent increases to 4% annually

Writing in the Sunday Times in early April, Cov

eney claimed as he often does: “12,600 houses

were built in 2015… and about 15,000 dwelling

were completed in 2016, up 18% on the 2015

ﬁgure, and connected to the grid by ESB net

works”. This is dishonest, even if the Minister

seems to be becoming paranoid about pretend-

ing that other indicators are used: “it is not the

only data [sic] we use – we have information on

social housing delivery and need and on private

planning permissions and construction directly

from local authorities”.

On 7 February the Housing Department issued

a statement claiming "14,932" completions in

2016 leading to the Irish Independent headline:

'Home building at highest levels since 2009...'.

Junior Minister Paudie Coffey conﬁrmed to the

Dáil a mendacious ﬁgure of "15,256" homes com-

pleted in the year until the end of January, on 21

March.

And on 3 April, on 'Morning Ireland' Coveney

said "completions are up nearly 20 per cent".

Mel Reynolds showed in this magazine (Feb

ruary) that the number of homes built in 2016

was “not 15,000 but 7500”: “Thousands of exist-

ing vacant complete homes have been double

counted as new completions over the past ﬁve

years” because the Department of Housing

incompetently registers ESB connections as a

deﬁnitive gauge of completions, even though if

completion of a house is delayed it will be regis

tered twice by the ESB.

The fact is until Reynolds’ article the Minister

was content to use the 15,000 ﬁgure as a single

outward indicator. Commencements are incor-

rect, completions are not accurate and

obsolescence has been ignored. Reynolds also

claims, “the number of tenants renting may also

be underestimated due to CSO measurement

methodology”.

Indeed the 7500 ﬁgure gives the Department

the implausible beneﬁt of the doubt. It uses

stamp-duty ﬁgures as an indicator of comple-

tions. However the 3600 2016 stamp-duty

transactions probably represent an inﬂation of

the completion number. This is likely to be much

lower since stamp-duty is paid for existing com

pleted vacant units sold to new buyers by an

original developer who had to sit on units during

the downturn.

The Minister and his Department know all this

but they continue to ﬁll the airwaves and the

press with falsity and lies. The Minister needs to

address reality on this important issue. So-

called ‘rapid builds’, to give immediate solutions

for the homeless, have been completed in one

Many housing targets are being manipulated

and missed

by Michael Smith

Housing

and Coveney

I is useful o keep in mind

Aln Kelly’s plns.

In November  Kelly, hen Lbour

Miniser for he Environmen which

covered Housing, sid he

governmen would supply up o

, homes over he nex six

yers, including , socil

housing unis   cos of €.bn.

"An enhnced prive renl secor"

would cree " more ﬂexible nd

responsive sysem".

The socil-housing sregy would

come in wo phses, wih he ﬁrs of

, unis o be delivered by he

end of , seing  rge of

, ddiionl unis nd ,

oher homes where mos of he ren

would be pid under he Se’s

Housing Assisnce Pymen, which

is replcing Ren Supplemen, nd he

Renl Assisnce Scheme.

The second phse, o be delivered

by he end of , se  rge of

, such ddiionl unis nd

, such oher homes.

In fc fewer hn , locl

uhoriy nd prive-secor 'Pr V'

socil-housing unis were buil in

he following wo yers:  nd

.

Not 15,000: 7500 at most

POLITICS