One in three Louth social housing tenants behind on their rent as arrears approach €4m
Almost one in three of Louth’s social housing tenants are currently behind on their rent, with nearly €4 million owed to Louth County Council, councillors have been told.
The issue was highlighted by Drogheda councillor Pio Smith at the April meeting of Drogheda Borough District, where he called for tougher measures to tackle what he described as an “emergency situation” in rent arrears across the county.
Figures provided by Louth County Council show that 1,440 social housing accounts are currently in arrears, with a total of €3,963,967 outstanding in unpaid rent.
“Approximately one in three households are in arrears,” Cllr Smith told the meeting. “It has been a constant bugbear down the years.”
While he acknowledged that the amount of rent collected by the council was increasing overall, largely due to the expansion of the social housing stock, Cllr Smith said the scale of the arrears remained deeply concerning.
“Having a situation where we have a third of tenants not paying their rent or part of their rent is an emergency situation,” he said.
Cllr Smith argued that the impact of unpaid rent was being felt directly in the council’s ability to invest in housing services and infrastructure. He claimed that if all tenants met their rent obligations, the council’s housing budget could effectively be doubled.
“If everyone was paying their rent as they should be, Louth County Council would have €8 million to invest in new housing and maintenance instead of €4 million,” he said.
Although he accepted that the local authority had made ongoing efforts to address the problem, Cllr Smith said he had seen little evidence that those actions were resulting in a significant reduction in arrears.
“Despite the good works of Louth County Council, I don’t really see any dent in regards to the arrears,” he added.
He also cautioned against the introduction of a rent amnesty for tenants with long‑term arrears, saying he understood that such measures had been used in the past.
“If councils can’t collect rent, they should be handing it over to someone who can,” he said.
“We are continually asking the government for additional funding, when €4 million could be added to the housing budget if arrears were paid.”
Responding on behalf of the council, Declan Grimes, Senior Engineer (Housing), said Louth County Council had a dedicated focus on reducing the level of rent arrears among council tenants.
He told councillors that a “significant number” of warning letters are issued every month to tenants who fall behind on their rent, encouraging them to engage with the council on repayment plans.
Mr Grimes also outlined measures already in place to incentivise engagement, noting that planned maintenance or retrofit works would not be carried out in homes where tenants are in arrears and have failed to actively engage with the council to address the situation.
In addition, the meeting heard that extra staff have been assigned within the housing section specifically to deal with rent management and arrears, as the council continues efforts to bring down the level of unpaid rent across the county.
Cllr. James Byrne noted that over €100,000 had been “clawed back” by the council in February, and welcomed the efforts to tackle rent arrears.