€2m for 12 new Council houses in Clonard
A SCHEME of 12 new local authority houses is to be built in the Clonard area at a cost of over €2 million as Wexford County Council forges ahead with more than €30 million worth of housing projects over the next two years.
Stage one approval has just been granted by the Government for the dozen Clonard houses which will be built under the Local Authority Housing Capital Programme at a cost of €2,021,324.
The allocation is good news for families on the Wexford town housing list, many of whom have been waiting up to a decade for a Council home while living in over-crowded or sub-standard conditions.
Each of the new houses will cost approximately €130,000 to build and will be of a very high standard of design, construction and energy rating according to Senior Husing Officer Liz Hore.
‘What you’re getting is a fantastic house in terms of meeting all the standards with a minimum A2 energy rating and in many cases an A1,’ she said.
The latest housing announcement which has been welcomed by Minister of State Paul Kehoe, brings to €20.8 million the amount of Government finance that has been sanctioned in the past two months for new houses in the Wexford district alone where the demand for social housing is greatest with more than 1400 applicant families on the list.
The figure includes €5.7 million for 36 County Council homes in Whitebrook at Whiterock and €1.69 million for 10 houses at Slippery Green in St. Aidan’s Crescent in Wexford town.
It also includes finance approved for houses to be built by independent housing agencies including just under €5 million for 28 homes at Whitebrook by Oaklee Housing Association and €6.6 million for 39 Clúid units in Coolcotts.
The housing officer said the Council has a very ambitious programme of house building and acquisitions across the county totalling over €30 million, all to be completed within the next two years.
Ms. Hore said the County Council is well place to provide badly-needed new housing with the housing department having its own architect and design team and the recent addition of five new staff members.
The allocations are designed to tackle huge waiting lists which have built up over the past decade during which the Council received little or no money to build new homes for local authority tenants.
‘ The funding of these new houses is just one part of the plan to get housing back on track in County Wexford, said Deputy Kehoe, adding that it will result in a dramatic increase in the delivery of homes.