Greens call for cash in Shared Equity Scheme to fund social housing
TWO Green Party TDs want funding for the Housing Minister’s controversial Shared Equity Scheme cut and put into building public housing amid growing opposition to the plan.
The scheme to deliver ‘cheaper housing’ – where the State takes up to a 30% stake in a first-time buyer’s home – has been criticised by a number of experts, Opposition deputies and now Government TDs.
The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, which represents 1,500 estate agents and auctioneers, is the latest group to claim the scheme will increase house prices – joining independent think-tank the ESRI and the Central Bank.
Green TDs Neasa Hourigan, who chairs the Budgetary Oversight Committee, and Patrick Costello told the Irish Daily Mail the €75million funding for the scheme should be used to build public housing.
Mr Costello said: ‘Money going into this scheme is money not going to social housing. I think social and public housing should be the priority.’
Ms Hourigan said a shared equity system can work, but that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s plans will only serve developers’ profit margins.
She said: ‘A shared equity programme can only work when it is underpinned by an affordable construction mechanism. Without that, it becomes an investment in developers’ profits and the money would be better spent on social and public housing.’
Prominent Green Dublin City councillor Michael Pidgeon also came out against the scheme. He said: ‘It probably won’t have a huge impact but it won’t have a negative impact on house prices which is what we should be doing – driving down prices or increasing supply, and I don’t think it is doing either.’ Nine Fine Gael councillors – led by Ray McAdam, parliamentary assistant to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, – have also written a letter to the Housing Minister requesting the scheme be scrapped.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu has also said the scheme will ‘only benefit developers’.
It comes as the County and City Management Association (CCMA) will tell the Oireachtas
Housing Committee today that local authorities are best placed to set affordable housing targets – not central government. The Site Service Fund is the main mechanism used to deliver affordable housing through local authorities, and Frank Curran of the CCMA will tell the committee that €188million has been allocated to the strategy, which aims to deliver 4,000 units. Of these, 140 homes will be delivered this year, with an additional 700 in 2022 and a further 1,500 in 2023.
The statement will also point out that local authorities are still dealing with 2,000 unsold units from a previous affordable housing programme.
‘However, it should also be pointed out that local authorities are still dealing with the legacy of previous affordable housing programmes pre 2011. Currently, local authorities have approximately 2,000 unsold affordable dwellings with associated unfunded costs of €350million. While all these dwellings are currently occupied as social housing units, these legacy issues require resolution,’ Mr Curran will add.
‘Will only benefit developers’