HOUSING POLICY TRENDS
The Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government states that the core objective of housing policy in Ireland is to enable every household to have available an affordable dwelling of good quality, suited to its needs, in a good environment and, as far as possible, at the tenure of its choice.
Private Sector/Home-Ownership and Rental Housing
The majority of people satisfy their housing needs in the private home-ownership and rental sectors. This is supported by capital investment in the infrastructure required, planning and regulatory regimes which facilitate the operation of the market and fiscal support such as income tax relief in respect of mortgage loan interest or income subsidies towards rents. Almost 80% of all Irish households are in the private home-ownership tenure sector.
State and local authority housing efforts are geared towards assisting access by those with modest incomes to affordable home-ownership solutions. Affordable home-ownership loan assistance is made available to first-time purchasers. Requirements are specified in the conditions of planning permissions granted for new housing developments to supply affordable housing units to local authorities for purchase by qualified applicants, in accordance with Part V of the Planning and Development Acts. In addition, there has been a long standing policy of disposal of local authority public/social rented housing to tenants for private home-ownership.
Social Housing
The State plays an important role in providing choices and support for those who cannot meet their own housing needs in the housing market. This has been mainly through the funding of building programmes for social rented housing provided by the local authorities (county, city and town councils), or by not-for-profit approved housing bodies in the voluntary and in the co-operative housing sectors, or for the acquisition of suitable dwellings for this purpose. Dwellings for social housing purposes are also acquired through local authority agreements with private developers under the requirements of Part V of the Planning and Development Acts for the supply of both social and affordable housing. State funding has been provided to support local authority arrangements for the leasing of dwellings, or subsidisation of rents in dwellings, made available for lower income households by private landlord or investor/developers. There is also a programme to provide better housing accommodation or halting sites for the traveller nomadic minority population group.
Special Needs Housing
State interventions include policies and programmes to support the provision of special needs and sheltered housing, including programmes to relieve homelessness. Approved housing bodies in the voluntary sector play an active role in helping to relieve this aspect of housing need, combining welfare or social supports with the provision of housing accommodation. Subsidy grants are made available for the adaption of housing for persons with disabilities to assist independent living.
Social Housing Supply
The national social rented housing stock owned and managed by the local authorities and by approved housing bodies in the voluntary housing association and the co-operative housing sectors had expanded to over 137000 dwellings by 2007. However, the national housing needs assessment in 2008 indicated that some 56000 approved applicants are in need of access to social housing support. Apart from filling the vacancies occurring in the existing social housing stock, this shortfall has to be met with programmes for building new social housing units. The accommodation of lower income households in private rental accommodation with subsidised rents (under the terms of the Rental Accommodation Scheme – RAS) also assists in this regard. Rental housing regulations have been strengthened to promote better accommodation standards and security of tenure.
In 2007 a total of 8673 dwellings (houses and apartments) were completed or acquired by the local authorities and the approved housing bodies in the voluntary and co-operative housing sectors. An additional new supply of 796 dwellings with subsidised rents was arranged during 2007 with private landlords.
The pathways to social housing, therefore, include access to local authority/public housing, access to voluntary housing and to co-operative rental housing, from the local authority social housing waiting lists and also to subsidised private landlord housing.
Social and Environmental Sustainability
A key objective of current housing policy statements is the building of better quality housing environments, with socially integrated neighbourhoods in sustainable housing developments. Technical floor area standards have been increased for the provision of more adequately sized apartments suitable for families, with related amenities, in urban areas. The Building Regulations have also been adjusted to improve environmental sustainability, requiring design specifications to achieve savings in energy usage and C02 emissions. More recently, financial aids or grants have been introduced to improve insulation and reduce energy consumption in the existing housing stock.
reference sources: Delivering Homes Sustaining Communities - Statement on Housing Policy, February 2007
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government http://www.environ.ie
For more information, please visit Supportive Policies for Co-operative Housing