‘People in the middle are snookered’ — Tipperary councillor urges changes in housing allocation
A Tipperary councillor has said that changes should be made to the Part V system to help those who don’t qualify for social housing.
At the July meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District, independent councillor Joe Hannigan said that if Part V rules were expanded further to allow for more affordable homes to be distributed, the council would be able to help people who don’t qualify for social housing.
Part V rules mean that a developer building a private housing development must provide 20pc of the houses for people on the council’s social housing list.
It can also be used to provide people with affordable housing, but Cllr Hannigan said that the scheme should include a greater percentage of affordable homes so that the council can help more people.
“Something needs to be done because a person who is earning over €31,000 but less than €50,000 in income, they’re in the middle,” Cllr Hannigan said.
“The people in the middle are really snookered,” he added.
The current income limit for social housing in Tipperary is €30,000 for a single person, meaning anyone who earns more than this will not be eligible to apply.
A representative from the council’s housing section said that under the legislation, Part V can be used for affordable housing, and now that this type of housing was starting to come on stream in Tipperary, they could allocate people affordable homes.
“20pc of developments have to be given to Part V — 10pc must be affordable and 10pc must be social. We’ve had discussions with the developer of the affordable housing scheme in Nenagh, and we have a few in the pipeline, so we should see Part V affordable in different areas in Tipperary,” the meeting was told.
Cllr Hannigan asked if the full 20pc allocated to people could be affordable homes, rather than a mix of social and affordable.
“Given that we have a large percentage of the housing built in Nenagh being social housing, can you not allocate that all the Part Vs be affordable housing?” he asked.
The representative said that as far as she was aware, 10pc had to be social homes under the legislation.
Cllr Hannigan said this should be addressed at a national level.
“I think that at the national level they’ll have to address this situation because I know the council have to play by the cards you’re dealt, but I do think that should be addressed,” he said.