TD sounds alarm bell over delay in building social and affordable houses in Mayo
A Mayo TD have been given information that shows the county is unlikely to come close to meeting the modest targets for social and affordable housing.
Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh elaborated: “The information that I have from the Department of Housing and at local level in Mayo show the depths of the government’s failure to get to grips with the housing crisis.
“The target set by the Minister for Housing for Mayo was 151 social and affordable homes in 2023.
"Mayo County Council thought that was not enough to meet the housing need and set their own target at 225.
“We now know that not a single social or affordable home was built in Mayo in the first nine months of 2023.
“Since then, we know that a housing project was delivered in Ballina. But that still leaves Mayo far short of the targets and means the crisis will continue to deepen.
“There are currently 1,235 people on the housing lists. Many others are excluded.
"But everyone suffers when the government fails to deliver social and affordable homes because it means less supply and higher prices and rents.
“Excessive red tape and bureaucracy, as well as a lack of resources and staff in Mayo County Council, is slowing down the delivery of much needed social and affordable housing.
“While there are a range of factors than can delay the delivery of social housing, the biggest factors are the cumbersome four stage approval process imposed on local authorities and approved housing bodies by the Department of Housing.
“These processes often add up to two years to the delivery of social housing after planning has been granted and before construction can begin.
“For example, 16 homes planned for Mulranny were in the planning phase for over three years and construction only began a few months ago.
"A total of 20 planned homes in Achill took well over a year to just pass the first of four stages of planning.
"We have seen something similar in Ballyvary, Belmullet, Kiltimagh and right across the county.
“Currently no house project in Ballinrobe is passed the capital appraisal stage – the first step of the planning process.
“I have long called for radical reform of the way in which social housing is delivered.
There is too much micromanagement of the development process by officials in the Department of Housing.
"This needs to be streamlined to speed up the process of granting planning permission.
"Councils need to be given greater autonomy to progress projects. Councils must be allowed to move to multi annual framework agreements with building contractors rather than having to tender for every single job.
‘Every single year since the government has come into office their inadequate social and affordable housing targets have been missed.
"Excessive red tape and bureaucracy are the primary reason. It’s time to take the shackles off our local authorities and approved housing bodies and let them deliver much needed public housing at pace.”