Governments housing policy is failing the people of North Tipperary – Morris

Over the last few months I have askedNorthTipperaryCountycouncil a series of questions related to housing policy in the constituency. The answers that I have received have confirmed to me that this Governments policy of forcing our housing applicants into private rented accommodation is not working for either tenant of landlord.

This Government have continued the practice of forcing housing applicants into private rented accommodation while forcing the same applicants rent supplements down at each budget making the applicants negotiate the rent down with already hard pressed landlords. The situation is unsustainable because the rent that landlords are achieving is not paying their mortgages which in turn are responsible for over 15% of these mortgages being in a default situation. This will have the effect of these houses being dumped overnight if the market ever recovers leaving hundreds of qualified housing applicants homeless.

I am calling on this Government to intervene and free up money for our councils to go out and purchase properties or build on their own land banks which will actually stimulate the property market in the area. With the new household taxes of Rates and Water charges coming down the road a whole generation of people inNorth Tipperarywill shy away from purchasing houses with councils being the only answer to a stagnant housing market.

Nenagh has 312 people on it s housing list Ardcroney 9 with 1 site in council hands for development Borrisokane has 37 people on the housing list with .0774 hectares available for development Cloughjordan has 26 people on the list Lorrha 2 Puckane 15 people on the list with 3.37 Hectares available for development Rathcabbin 4 people on List Riverstown has 3 people on list with 7 sites available for development while Ballingarry has 0 people on the list with 2 sites available for development. At huge cost to the taxpayersNorth Tipperarycounty council already has available sites purchased ready for development which if given the green light could solve a growing housing list. This Government must intervene immediately to ease the burden of our Housing applicants from years of uncertainty in private rented accommodation it would help stimulate a depressed construction industry inNorth Tipperary.

Yours sincerely Cllr. Séamie Morris             29/04/11