Single people in Tipperary allowed to bid on two-bed social homes — but with a catch
Single people approved for one-bedroom social housing in Tipperary will soon be able to bid on two-bedroom properties — but doing so could see their waiting-list time cut in half.
The change, approved by Tipperary County Council at its September plenary meeting, will allow people on the one-bedroom housing list to bid for two-bedroom properties through the council’s Choice Based Letting system.
The move is aimed at giving some hope to single people on the council’s housing list, but there is a catch.
If a single person wants to bid on a two-bedroom property, it will mean that their time on the council housing list will be halved.
For example, if a single person has been on the list for six years, and they bid on a two-bed, it will mean their time on the list will be counted as three years instead.
The meeting was told that if a person approved for a two-bedroom property had been on the housing list for four years and was bidding for the same property, they would take priority over a single person whose six years on the list had been reduced to three for the allocation.
The vote came after numerous calls over the past few months and years, with councillors arguing that there could be a range of reasons why a single person might need a two-bedroom property.
Sinn Féin councillor Annemarie Ryan said that, while she was sitting on the housing strategic policy committee (SPC) this was a difficult choice to make, but that they had to keep the system as fair as possible.
“It was a very difficult decision to have to come to, but we felt, looking at the data that the fairest decision that we could make to offer a little bit of hope to those people that have been on the one-bedroom list for so long,” she said.
“But it comes down to the fact that we’re not building enough houses in the first place, but there are some coming on stream. There’s not going to be enough, we’ve seen that from the figures, and it does come down to us as a local authority building more one- and two-bed properties,” the Sinn Féin councillor added.
However, independent councillor Liam Browne said he didn’t like the scheme as it was put before him, saying that there’s already a long list of people waiting for two-bedroom homes too.
“We have a huge issue already with people looking for two-bedroom houses and we don’t have enough of them, and we’re now going to put another cohort of people in looking for those two-bed houses making it even harder,” he said.
“Anyone who’s on a waiting list for eight years and then getting that halved to four years and go back starting again, facing up into a list against people who are on the list five or six years, I think that’s unfair,” he said.
Cllr Browne also said the council needed to build more social housing itself rather than relying on private developers to provide homes.
Despite his concerns, councillors voted to approve the change to the allocation rules.