Of Wexford preparations

building and purchase has been insufficient to allow the Council to keep up with demand.

‘We haven’t been building social houses. We’ve had a critical shortage of resources both in terms of funding and staffing. The County Council lost between 25 and 30% of its staff,’ said the Director.

However, in the past 12 months, new staff have been recruited into the housing department to lay the groundwork for a renewed housing programme, including engineering, technical and administrative employees.

‘We have the staffing in place to capitalise on this programme and to use the resources to best effect to fulfil the ambitions of the plan. Local authorities have been gearing up for the last 18 months, ’ said the housing director.

‘We have been sending up projects to the Department for approval over and beyond our target for 2016 and we are finding the Department very receptive,’ he said.

‘It’s still going to take time. You can’t build a house in a day. There’s the purchase of the land, the planning process, tendering process, the appointment of a builder, the construction work and then you select a tenant off your list. All these processes take a period of time.’

‘We have a large number of people are are talking to around the county. These discussions are confidential. We have been talking to developers, landowners and approved housing bodies who are also bringing projects to fruition.’

The Director of Housing said Wexford County Council has sufficient land for house building ‘at the moment’ but is always on the look-out for suitable site and is ‘active in the market’.

He anticipates that Wexford’s housing crisis will be solved by a ‘ wide range of solutions’ involving the local authority, approved housing bodies and developers building houses with the Council purchasing some privately-built houses as well as building its own schemes.

The local authority had a target to acquire 55 houses this year and to date has paid deposits on 86 properties.

‘I anticipate we will purchase about 110 properties during the year which is double the original target’, said Mr. Carley.

The houses are mostly privately-owned properties on the open market although a number are in NAMA control. ‘We have a price limit that we pay for a house in different parts of the county.’

The Council will respond to housing needs across the county although Wexford and Gorey are an immediate priority due to the large number of people on the list.

‘We have been very ambitious all along in our plans. We have been preparing projects over and above the targets,’ he said.

The Government strategy as announced by Minister Coveney last week does not contain specific targets for Wexford and the local authority is currently awaiting further information from the Department.

‘As a programme it’s ambitious. The Government has recognised there is an issue and this is a strategic response to that issue,’ said the Director.

‘In fairness to the previous government, they also brought forward a plan and this new strategy continues the work started by them. The extra staffing was approved under the previous administration.’

‘We in the housing department expect to be very busy for the next few years, he said.

IT’S STILL GOING TO TAKE TIME. YOU CAN’T BUILD A HOUSE IN A DAY