Louth social housing tenants rejected almost 20pc of houses they bid on, new figures show

By Olivia Ryan, The Drogheda Independent

Over 19.2pc of homes offered to Louth’s social housing tenants through the Choice Based Letting (CBL) system have been turned down, according to new figures released by Louth County Council.

The statistics emerged at the local authority’s January meeting, following a question submitted by Independent Councillor, Ciaran Fisher, revealing that over the last eight years the rate of tenant refusals was highest in Dundalk followed by Drogheda and Ardee.

Cllr Fisher asked for a breakdown of the percentage of refusals the council have received yearly since the introduction of the CBL system, which is the portal used by tenants to bid for social housing when it is advertised by Louth County Council.

The meeting heard the CBL system is designed to give tenants the freedom to bid on social houses in areas “they actually want to live in.”

The allocation system was first introduced in 2017, and figures were provided from 2018, the first full year, up until 2025.

Director of Service, Ger Murphy explained: “The majority of refusals are where an applicant was successful in bidding on CBL, received a provisional offer of an allocation, and subsequently refused the offer.”

Since 2018 there were 282 refusals of offers in the Dundalk area. A further 301 offers were rejected by prospective tenants in Drogheda, and 80 in Ardee.

In terms of house types, the refusals were across the board, from one bed to four bed housing units.

Cllr. Ciaran Fisher said he was pleased to see a decrease in the rate of refusals in Dundalk.

He asked what mechanism was used to bring down the number of refusals.

Cllr. Marianne Butler asked if tenants turn down an offer, after bidding through Choice Based Letting, if they are prevented from getting another offer for a year.

She asked if this was the case, as it is in the Housing Allocation Scheme.

Director of Services, Ger Murphy said: “The answer to your question is a straight yes, if someone has bid on CBL, and then refuses that {property} they are precluded from using CBL for a period of twelve months.”

He said this strategy was adopted by councillors in the Housing Allocation Scheme which they had passed last October.

“So we will be sticking to that,” added Mr. Murphy.

He said that the system itself, CBL, had helped the local authority bring down the number of refusals.

“It is quite a useful tool, as it does give that responsibility back to the tenant to bid on an area that they actually want to live in. So it has helped to reduce that rate of refusals.”